Rise of a Shadow: Special Edition
by Dark Reaper
Summary: The ex-SOLDIER Zack arises from the ashes of obscurity to help Aeris, the girl who saved his life. His story is one surrounded by mystery as he unknowingly helps Cloud and the rest of AVALANCHE in his quest to stop Sephiroth.(Closed)
1. Words from the Author

Hello and welcome to Rise of a Shadow: Special Edition. I've given the entire story a total makeover and will be posting up the new chapters as I finish them. Although the new (and hopefully improved) fanfiction will be very similar to the old, unlike the Star Wars: Special Edition there will be many changes and additions made (including a somewhat different ending). This story should pave the way for more fanfics because right now I'm getting a major Final Fantasy 7 muse. Hope you enjoy.  
  
-Dark Reaper 


	2. An Unknown Variable

Chapter 1  
  
  
I drifted through the pain and floated through the currents of sorrow. All about me loomed a shadow darker than night, it flowed and breathed as it sucked me to its bosom. For an eternity I hung there in desperation and despair, awaiting an end that would not come. There was no escape from this prison, from the whirlpool of suffering, so I endured only because there was nothing else I could do.   
However, the blackness would close in at times, and from across the void I could hear a strange voice calling me. I say it was strange only because it happened to avoid sound all together by appearing inside my head, an inaudible command that sought obedience from within my tortured soul.   
It welcomed me in and clothed me in comfort. I would sink into a place where the darkness no longer frightened me, and the shadows were no longer menacing. It was always then that the blackness would curl up on itself like mist or fog, and through would shine a light more brilliant than anything I can remember laying eyes on. It shone with the intensity of the sun, and with the warm glow of a cheery log fire. The light moved like a living creature, and it always seemed to me that my very soul was open to its omniscient solar eye.   
Through the heavenly portal would appear the angel…  
It had to be an angel, I knew that much even though I was no longer sure what the word meant. She was a young woman in a shimmering rose-colored dress. Her hair was a golden brown and hung about her in wonderful curls and braids, held in place by a band of brilliant pink and white which wreathed her head in a halo of cherry flame. She would come to me and speak to me, though I could never remember the words afterwards. When she finally departed back through the circle of radiance I was left with a feeling of complete comfort, beyond what even the voice could offer. Also, there was a knowledge that I could and would strive on through my torture, that I would defeat the perpetual and unending pain. The night would rise about me again, subjecting my mind to its punishments, as if to scorn me for my insolent refusal of its kind offer of peace. Peace was all I wanted, and nowhere could I find it. It eluded my grasp as effectively as oil might slip through a strainer. It was as foolish a goal as attempting to grip water in your hand.  
Yet, as long as the angel visited me I knew that I could continue fighting. I was sure that there must be something beyond the void of sorrow or else what might she be telling me to fight for? Yes…she wanted only what was best for me. I knew this with a conviction that was stronger than iron. If the angel wanted me to return to the other world, then I would fight till I got there…I would fight until I found peace.   
It was this drive that kept me going as long as I did.   
But all things must come to an end.   
For some time the voice had been speaking to me, it was constantly intruding into my thoughts. The call was incessant now, a growing trouble that gnawed away at the back of my mind like a dog scraping on the back door, waiting to be let in. I blocked out these thoughts, and plugged up my soul to the voice. However, it was getting to be more vigorous in its invitation to let go, and as the pain and suffering increased by the second I knew I would eventually give in.   
It was a foregone conclusion really, for too long I had battled with myself and the voice. I was weak and the darkness was strong. My will was wavering and the eternal night delighted in my suffering so that I wanted to scream at it, to release the anger and frustration that had been building up within me for so very long indeed.  
But no sound would come; no matter how hard I tried there was only the pervasive silence that answered back…and the summons.  
There was no angel this time, no gateway of hope to pull me from the brink of the abyss, and somehow I knew there wouldn't be. Somewhere I felt in the very pit of my soul a knowledge that this time, I was alone. This struck like a bowling ball, and suddenly I knew not only that the terrible suffering would never end, and that I would meet this fate totally and utterly alone. The desolation of this feeling of loss was so absolute that it pervaded whatever was left of my sanity like a virus, and tore my resolve to shreds. I was overwhelmed with bitterness and resentment, at what I cannot be sure, only that more than anything else I wanted to lash out at something with all my might.  
But there was nothing there to attack, and as the loneliness wore off I was left with a hollowness of the spirit and mind that let in the voice and gave it full reign. There was no more tenacity left within me, no feeling at all, except for that last wish for peace and rest.   
And the voice offered this to me in thick, sweet, honey dipped tones. Its words were reassuring and in every way seemed to me the purest wisdom. Why SHOULD I continue on like this, when all it took to reach oblivion was letting go…I found letting go to be all too easy.  
Once again I sunk down to that world where black turned to gray and sorrow became nothing more than a bad dream. This time there was nothing to stop me, and with a sigh of relief I let myself be pulled silently down into the great beyond.  
The black became gray and then black once more and I had the sensation of falling very quickly, and yet I was not afraid. The darkness began to slither around me like a burrow of snakes. The slithering waves were tainted green and soon I was flying down through a glowing emerald sea of light. Strange thoughts and emotions burst in my head like the sounding of trumpets around my ears, only to be replaced by new ones. A thousand bells were ringing in my head, and the world around me became more and more jumbled and chaotic as my descent neared its end.  
Oh blessed relief washed over me like a cool mountain spring as the green tendrils let me slip through their grasp, down into a land of total and complete bliss. How can I describe the ambiance that caressed my soul and set my heart at ease? I had finally reached the place where I might finally be at peace, and surely no outside world could be as right as this place. 'Yes,' the voice said, 'rest awhile, sleep awhile…you'll soon feel much better…just a small nap…you deserve it…just a nap…' The void around me grew hazy as I began to drift off. The green light was returning, wrapping about me like a warm blanket, calming me like a mother comforts a small child. I felt so very warm and secure, like I could sleep there forever, and then, all of a sudden, the world went cold.  
My eyes fluttered open wide in shock and terror as I was surrounded not by the comforting light of the emerald sea, but darkness. As I thrashed about in a mindless rage, a white light grew in the distance. This was not like the light from heaven, the harbinger of the angel. It was instead more like a small point of luminosity, radiating in all directions like a tiny white sun, there was nothing warm about it. What's more is that it was getting closer and closer to me, and as it grew bigger, I stopped my futile battering of shadow and went still with surprise. It was now very near indeed, close enough for me to reach out and touch it, but this was one thing I didn't dare attempt. It stopped and hovered in silence, object and man waiting to see who blinked first. Mist began to pour from the orb like crystal water, floating out and expanding with delicate tendrils and fingers of light. It was then that I noticed it was forming a general shape…an almost human shape. The white mist continued to form and solidify until the object before me was most certainly a human, and a woman at that. The color was added and final features set. I had to catch my breath.  
"The angel?!" I whispered in a hoarse voice…it had been a long time since I'd used it. Her face creased in a wonderfully warm smile.  
"I've been called many things," she said, "but I think you're the first to call me an angel." Her voice was as like listening to a symphony of silken sounds all at once, and the stroke of a single syllable was like listening to the sweetest flute playing a solo inside your head. Yet, there was always a soft undertone to it, so that it was a voice that commanded, but comforted all at once.  
"What…," I said, "What are you doing…here?" I was having trouble finding the words, speech itself seemed so strange to me, like something that had been forgotten long ago.  
Her smile dimmed a little, "I'm dead, like you." 'Yes,' I told myself, 'that makes sense, what could I be besides dead?'  
I looked around, "what is this place?"  
"This," she replied, "I suppose you could call it limbo, although it's much more complex than that."  
"So…," I replied, "I'm not completely dead then?"  
She looked at me strangely, "you cut right to the heart of the matter actually. Technically we're both dead, or we should be. I felt you when you entered this place, you would have died, but I pulled you out."  
"Then why are you here?" I asked, words finally flying back to place in my head, becoming readily available for use by my lips.  
"Me…," she said, "I was…" She shook her head, "I really don't like to talk about it. By the way Zack, my name is Aeris, in case you don't remember me." The name sounded some note deep within the depths of my cloudy memory. Aeris…I knew this name, but there were more pressing questions at hand.  
"How do you know my name?" I asked curiously.  
"We…know each other from the past," she replied. "We parted ways for a long time, but I found you again." She stopped and waited a moment before continuing, "You were very sick…although at the time I never recognized you…you've changed a lot you know. I didn't want anyone getting scared of you so I hid your things; now that I can look back I think I probably did the right thing. In any case I took care of you and tried to nurse you back to health, but my efforts failed." She hesitated again, "Now I'm here, I guess you could say that my spirit is trapped in this ethereal plane, unable to die and unable to completely take physical form…like you. I didn't want to leave you Zack," she said, her crystal blue eyes begging me to believe her sincerity. "It was just that nothing I did could bring you out of that coma. I thought that if you were ever going to get better you'd have to find your way yourself."  
I waved my hands in front of me, "don't worry. I don't blame you…I was a mess, and as things look it would appear that I did find a way of sorts." I looked around, and turned my attention back to Aeris, it was then that I saw just how haggard her appearance was and how tired her eyes really were.  
"Are you ok?" I asked as cautiously as I could.  
"Oh," she replied, "I'm just so tired…so very very tired. Sometimes I wonder if anything that I've set into place will work…it seems like everything is failing on me…even you Zack. I had hoped that you would somehow be able to wake yourself up, but instead you only tried to die."   
It was only then that I realized just how high stressed she really was. You wouldn't have needed a knife to cut the tension building up in her; you could have touched it with a que-tip and the backlash would have been enough to kill.  
She gasped and brought her hand up to her face as several tears ran down her cheeks. I went to help her but she held up her other hand, stopping me in my tracks.  
"No," she said, "I'm fine; I've just been under a lot of stress lately."  
"Aeris," I said, "how did you die?" I felt horrible asking her this question a second time when she was so upset, but somehow I knew that it was intimately connected with her current condition (I mean her stress level, not the fact that she was dead).  
She looked straight at me, then turned her head towards the ground, or where the ground might have been if there had been any sort of reference point in that world to work on other than your own position in it.  
"I was…" she hesitated, "murdered."  
Something unfathomable inside me, beyond the foggy moors of my memory, past rational thought, a left turn at sanity, and somewhere down primal instinct lane, snapped.  
You see, I couldn't remember anything from my past, yet here was a friend from it. I had been sick, and this girl in front of me had nursed me. In my madness she had cared for me. She had dulled the pain and offered a light to me in the endless dark. When I fell into the abyss of death, she had been there to catch me. In this void she had found me and comforted me. This was done when she obviously had unspeakably more important things to do…she'd put it all aside for me…just to save me. Somewhere I knew that I had never known many people willing to do what this girl had done. It was then that I decided that if there was another human being on the face of the planet more openly caring and loving than this girl…I would probably never meet them.  
The rage and frustration that had built up inside of me before was nothing compared to this. That anger had been spawned out of personal suffering; it was selfish in nature and was naturally futile. This new wrath was a righteous indignation to make the lifestream shudder. I knew that I was shaking, but I could no longer control it. You see I was still very insane; the long months…perhaps even years, spent in my own personal hell had assured that, and now I was very, very 'upset'. My thoughts at this point were screaming through my head, but one focus point was what I was going to do to the person who killed Aeris...the ideas that were developed in my twisted imagination were in no way pleasant.   
There was no doubt that I would take vengeance on her killer, I knew it as the man knows he can inhale, and his lungs will fill with nitrogen and oxygen.   
With this knowledge woke up something very close to primeval instinct lane, in fact I think it had been buried directly underneath. What it was exactly is hard to say, it was like a shadow, and the instant it woke it began to soak up energy like a sponge on steroids. The darkness around me grew dim, if that's even possible, and all edges and detail began to blend together in a twisted screen, like when you look into a distorted mirror, only this was three-dimensional. Aeris' eyes opened wide in shocked revelation.  
"You're breaking through the planar boundaries," she gasped. "This is impossible…you're…you're doing it all by yourself!"  
"How am I doing it all by myself?" I rasped as my body was racked by another wave of energy, "and what am I doing?!"  
"You're bringing yourself back to life," she said as my body began to glow, "and I have no idea how you're doing it…perhaps you had some hidden energy reserve or…"  
A screech that would have raised the hair on the back of a harpy's neck wrenched itself from my throat at that moment, and my nice little conversation came to an end with an explosion of pure light, the kind that leaves your shadow blasted onto the wall behind you. The words "go to the church" were left reverberating through my skull.  
  
My eyes opened slowly, their glazed vision not offering much initially. I sat up slowly and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. I let my hands drop back into my lap and took a casual glance around my room. My 'room' as I called it, was actually a very large steel pipe that was just big enough for a man to stand in. Behind me the pipe had been cut off with debris, a small wooden table stood in front of the mess, balancing precariously on four legs, none of which were the same length. On top someone had put an old T.V.; the monitor was fizzing quietly and putting off a ghostly glow about the dim chamber. I got up on weak, but steady legs.  
To my left someone had nailed up a couple of shelves, a group of cheap trophies of unknown genre littered the skinny wooden frames along with a couple other misplaced items…mostly indiscriminate junk.   
One thing that did catch my attention was a tiny mirror. It had a thin crack running down the side of it, but besides that it looked to be in good condition. I fell back down on the mat I had lain on during my mysterious ailment, and examined myself in the mirror.  
What I saw was a man thin and gaunt from weeks of disease. My cheeks were sunken and lines that should not have appeared for another thirty years now criss-crossed my face. My beard had been stunted by the sickness, whatever it had been. However, stubble had since turned into a short, but ragged, beard. My hair had been shaven off, its growth slowed as well by the disease. Taking off the moth eaten cap that covered my scalp I ran my hand through the black bristly growth, and felt that my hair should be much longer than this. My eyes were what really caught my attention though. They were more than just blue; they seemed to actually glow with blue. They were eyes that unsettled, they were eyes that made strangers slow in the street after passing you and wonder why they'd stopped. It was quite strange, and yet I realized I wasn't as upset as I should be. I knew that normal humans did not have eyes that could glow, but for some reason I knew that this was right, that this was how I was meant to be.  
I got to my feet again, this time was much easier than the first, and walked outside.  
Above me there was a gloom that loomed ominously over all in the form a gigantic metal plate. Around the sky it loomed, dauntless and merciless, blocking all sun from the pitiful world below. And holding up the ceiling of iron was a monolithic pillar that appeared to not only support the giant iron pizza above, but the entire city itself.  
It was indeed a city, although a more pathetic and filthy place I found hard to imagine. Heaps of trash and scrap metal rose like tiny mountain ranges above the decrepit shanties that served as shelter for the slum's forlorn inhabitants. The roads were dusty and lined with junk, neglected neon signs flashed their indecipherable messages through grubby window panes. About me children played in the dirt and grime while the older youths loitered about in an uncaring daze. I could hear a dog barking and music was being played from inside one of the shacks that these people called a house, but other that that, only the sound of children's laughter touched the everlasting destitution of that place. I sat down on an abandoned curb and tried to make sense of what had just happened to me.   
I clutched my head in my fists.  
I was free now, but what should I do?  
'Simple,' I told myself, 'you find and kill Aeris' murderer…simple as that.'  
'But how do I accomplish that,' I wondered, 'when I can't so much as remember my own past.'  
I had no idea were I was or where I could go…in short I was lost at a sea with a paddle, propeller, boat, life-raft, or small piece of wood to cling to for dear life.   
As I wallowed in my total and complete inaptitude, I sensed a presence approach. A shadow fell across the ground in front of me, and I looked up to find a young boy standing before me. I would place his age at somewhere around seven to eight. He was skinny and had tussled mouse-brown hair, his eyes were brown as well.   
"You ok mister?" he asked shyly.  
"Hmmm?" I replied, still groggy.  
"I asked if you were ok?" asked the boy again.  
"Oh…," I started uncertainly, was I ok? I couldn't tell, but the boy looked like he might be genuinely concerned and I didn't want to trouble him so I lied a little. "Yah," I said, "I'm fine…" The boy nodded like that was the answer he'd been waiting for, and turned to run away.  
"Wait," I said, reaching out towards the boy, "could you help me a second?"  
He turned around slowly, for the first time a worried look crossed his face. I am sure he was wondering just what this strange man could want from him…I didn't blame him for being careful, somehow I knew it had taken quite a bit of courage on the boy's part to even approach me. Something told me that young children here learned very quickly not to talk, or even be around strangers.  
"How…," he began, "how could I help you?"  
"I started to get up, but the look of terror that flashed across his face made me think better of it.   
Sitting back down I said, "Could you tell me just where I am?" For some reason the boy instantly relaxed, perhaps he thought me a drunk or drug addict asking for directions.  
"Well sir, you're in Sector 5."  
My brow creased, "what an…interesting name for a city."  
He laughed, "Man you're really wasted aren't you?" I resented that remark. "The city is Midgar…you're in Midgar ok."  
"OK, ok…," I said. Alright, I now knew where I was, I knew what I needed to do, but I still didn't know how I was going to do it. Then the words came back to me in the form of an echo, in the way they had first appeared.  
"Is there a church around here?" I asked suddenly, before the boy had a chance to leave.  
"Yah," he replied, "its down in that direction." He pointed off down a street.  
"Thanks," I said, "that's all I needed." The boy, suddenly very happy to be released, bounded off to rejoin his friends who were playing in a nearby alley, shouting something about it being his turn.   
There was nothing for it so I started walking. Just a bit out of town the housing came to a very sudden halt, and was replaced by what I can only describe as a Rome among dumps, so magnificent was it in its stinky all-encompassing might. I'd thought the garbage problem back in town had been bad, but this was absolutely amazing. The wonder of its megalithic filthiness brought a gasp of awe to my lips, and tears of pain to my eyes. Trying not to breathe too deeply, I began my way down the dust covered path.  
It didn't take long before my steps brought me to the front door of a church, just where the kid had said it would be. In truth, the word church was a bit of an overstatement. It was half buried in an avalanche of debris, and most of the windows had been broken long ago, and yet, far above in the steel sky there poked a single ray of sunlight through some abandoned shaft or supply chute, and this lone beam of hope fell on the church and illuminated it with its warmth. I stood outside for a time, simply drinking in this remembrance to the sun, yet I knew that eventually I'd need to go inside.  
My curiosity finally overcame my nostalgia, and with a bit of caution, I walked up to the two great oaken doors and pushed them in.  
They opened with a faint creak, and soon revealed an interior bathed in the same golden sunlight that washed over the outside of the house of worship. The roof above had been smashed in by some falling object, broken boards lay strewn across the wooden floor. Pews lined the aisle before me, and there, before the altar, soaked in the fugitive rays of a sun so far away it might have been in an entirely different world altogether, were the flowers. Floor boards had been pulled up and a plot of earth carefully prepared. The seeds had been planted and lovingly tended. Now, they had sprouted up into a myriad of wonderful colors, shapes, and sizes. In that land of dust, here was a place where I might rest…where I might find peace. I approached the garden and sat down in the front pew, staring off into space as I lingered in that holy place. 'Why was I brought here?' I wondered to myself. It was a question that seemed to plague me…why was any of this happening to me? What had I been before the void had swallowed me up? Why had I been released? Why couldn't I remember anything? When would I start to remember? What was I going to do? I hoped to learn the answer to this last question here, in the church, among the flowers.  
As I sat there, the air around me began to stiffen. The scent of roses grew almost overpowering as the air over the flower bed started to solidify. Dust motes and particles of pollen began to swirl about in a vortex of air that didn't even seem to exist, for in its place, a figure had formed. At first the vision was hazy, not entirely there. Now it was more complete, and it was becoming increasingly easy to pick out the curved lines and smooth shape that marked the shadowy stranger to be a woman. The strange visage motioned for me to approach…I'd been wanting answers…now it appeared that I might get more than I bargained for. I complied with the stranger's unvoiced order, and moved in closer, but stayed out of the circle of light pouring through the ceiling.   
"Zack…" I heard a weak, but recognizable voice whisper. It was Aeris; I knew it from the moment I heard my name being spoken.  
"I'm here Aeris," I replied, hope for the first time welling up in me.  
"I'm sorry Zack," she replied, "It is very difficult for me to maintain physical form for very long…so please just listen…I can only hope you hear what I have to say."  
"Don't worry Aeris," I said, "I can hear you…" but she continued on as if she couldn't hear me…and I realized that indeed she couldn't.  
"Your mind is lost," she said, "you do not know who you are…and this only weakens you. You said you wished to avenge me…I give you the chance to aid me. First you must discover yourself…must…find out who you are. You are more powerful than you know Zack…you must find……headquarters…go to the Shinra HQ. It is there where you can open your past…there you can unlock your memories….if you can do this…then I will tell you more…later….later…….good luck……………."  
The voice faded away and the figure drifted apart like mist on a pond when the sun first hits the glassy waters, dispelling the murk with the first rays of day, and I was left standing there, dumbfounded and even more confused than before.  
  
By the time I got back to the town night had started to fall, or I should say that everything got dimmer than it had been before. The people were gone from the streets by now, or at least most of the people…those who had nowhere else had remained in the alley or ditch which they called home, and most were starting small fires in metal barrels to keep themselves warm as the chill of night set in.   
Shinra, Shinra, Shinra, Shinra, the word was running through my head by now. Although the name seemed familiar to me, I had no idea what it was, or how I might ever reach it. Aeris had spoken of it as if it were a thing…or place. If it had a headquarters than it had to be in place didn't it? Happy with myself for solving at least one piece of the riddle, I set my already severely disabled mind to work on the other million bits and pieces of a jig-saw puzzle so vast and complex that I doubted I'd understand it even if I ever managed to but it all back together again.   
Lights were glowing from behind closed and shuttered windows, adding their pale light to the blaze of neon signs glaring from shop windows, declaring their unique wares. And to undercut them all were the pitiful blazes of the homeless, started by the destitute in a land of darkness. In a way it brought everyone down onto the same level…equal trash and grim and stench and gloom for all, a cynical but effective form of democracy.   
It was then that I realized that one of those fires might be nice, since I didn't have anyplace to stay, and I certainly didn't want to curl up at the side of the curb, or what might have been a curb by Sector 5 standards…meaning it wasn't much to look at. I stopped in the middle of the road, forgetting my problems with Shinra and its supposed headquarters, and focusing on more immediate problems, like where I was going sleep. I thought about going back to the church, but something told me that that road was probably not very safe during the day, and at night it would probably be suicidal to try and travel on it. Then, even if I got to the church, where was I going to sleep? on a hard wooden pew? Dropping that idea, I moved off down the list: I doubted anyone was going to invite me into their house, and the homeless didn't look like the friendly sort of people who'd invite you in to share half-a-bottle of cheap beer with.   
Choices were drying up fast, and before long I simply decided to head back to my tunnel…if I was lucky none of the less fortunate had taken up refuge in it yet. By now it was getting to be downright dark, the hundreds…even thousands of tiny lights in the plate above had begun to turn themselves off, making me realize just how much I'd appreciated their company. Even so, I was still able to stumble and bumble my way to the tunnel, and heaven be praised it was empty. Yawning heavily, I crawled in and found the familiar thin mattress on the floor. Throwing myself on its lumpy, smelly, and moth-eaten surface, I was asleep in seconds. 


	3. Reaper of Memories

Chapter 2  
  
  
The haze of sleep was lifting slowly; a dim light was filling my vision. The light was shining in from the entrance of my tunnel…it was strange how I'd started to refer to it as my tunnel. The idea that a person could truly own anything in that place seemed so much like pathetic optimism that I could not help but laugh to myself. With a lethargic start I pulled myself up onto two shaky legs.  
My sleep had been restful; I'd slipped almost instantly into that deep dreamless place within one's mind, and yet, the memory of voices still remained in my head, like some sticky residue that you can't get out of the top of your mouth.   
Emerging from my crypt, I was suddenly filled with a surge of unexpected energy as even the dim glow of the slums seemed to lift my spirits. For the first time since my awakening I realized that I was alive, and I was actually happy to be alive, even if I did plan to live out my existence for someone else. Brimming with righteous vigor I stepped out of my happy reverie in order to begin a day unmarked and unmeasured by the sun.  
The first thing I needed was to find out what Shinra was and where its headquarters might be, I could play it by ear after that.  
Walking around, I paid attention to the shops for the first time. There were bars and an item shop; a weapon market had taken up shop in an old abandoned RV, and one unique place which called itself a Materia Store. The word 'Materia' seemed to ring a bell somewhere in my mind, but other than that I was at a loss as to what this place might be. Curious, I walked up to the wooden door and gave it a push, it creaked all the way in, upsetting a bell someone had placed over the edge of the doorway. There was a long desk that ran from one wall to the other, the dusty walls were covered with old and ratty posters for events and people long gone and long dead, and in the back was a single entryway into a storage or workroom. Also, and this is what drew my attention, there was a small glass display case behind the front desk with several green orbs held within its once translucent, now slightly grubby embrace.  
It was from the backroom that a crash could be heard, along with many muffled curses. After a moment of silence the door opened and out stumbled a young man with the tired look on his face of a person who wants to do more with their life but knows that they'll never get the chance.  
"How can I help you," he said, brushing some dust off his jacket.  
"I was wondering what you sold here," I replied. The man got a curious look on his face, but answered anyway.  
"We sell Materia here…sir," he replied, "It says so on the sign."  
"Yes…umm…" I said, "but what I was wondering was…" I suddenly realized how ridiculous I looked asking a question that was probably more absurd than my inquiry as to what city I was in.  
"Never mind," I said. I racked my brain for some excuse for my bizarre behavior and could only come up with one, "I had a rough night."  
The man nodded his head as the same relived look that I had seen on the boy spread over his features.  
'Just another drunk,' I could practically hear him thinking.  
I left the shop with what I could salvage of my dignity, and tried to find another angle with which to complete my plan.  
Materia…what was Materia when the name seemed so familiar to me? It was on the tip of my tongue really, just waiting to jump out. As I walked I tried as hard as I could to break through the fog surrounding my memories, with little luck, but it was as I pulled out of my thoughts that I noticed that I was not only back in my tunnel, but tearing the mattress off the floor like I was possessed by something. Indeed, when I tried to move I found it extremely difficult, like someone…or something, was controlling me as easily as one might pull the strings on a puppet. Since it appeared that I could do little to stop myself, I gave up trying, and instead watched as my hands reached for a place beneath the mattress and peeled off a metal plate as easily as one might peel an orange. My left hand went in and came back up with a small wooden box, obviously handmade by someone who didn't know how to handmake things.  
The strange presence that had possessed me for a moment now had disappeared, and I was left to gasp on the ground, clutching the poorly made package till my knuckles turned white.  
It had certainly been a disconcerting experience all in all. My hands were sweaty, my limbs shaky, and my head aching. My whole body felt sort of empty with the strange presence gone, and yet, something in it had reminded me of the void like you might recognize a person from the echo of their voice. The thought made me shiver, but I swallowed my fear and slid my back into the curve of the tunnel so as to rest for a moment before opening the box that someone…perhaps I, had built.  
Whatever it was that had controlled me was obviously gone, but I decided that whatever it was, I didn't want it coming back. So, as I lay in my tunnel…hmmm, I was still referring to it as MY tunnel…heaving and gasping for breath, I thought of how I might better prepare myself for such an attack in the future. However, there was still a voice in the back of my head that wanted to know why I didn't like this new presence. Whatever it was that I was holding, it had helped me find, and since Aeris had said that she'd hidden my things, I could only assume that it was mine. 'Perhaps this strange presence was only trying to help,' said the little voice, 'perhaps it was Aeris trying to help you.' It was strange enough being talked to by a ghost, truth be told I had no idea what Aeris was truly capable of, but I knew in the bottom of my heart that whatever had possessed me had nothing to do with Aeris. And of course, there was still that feeling of the void, not all around me, but inside me, like it had replaced my soul and left nothing but faint reverberations, warning me as to the nature of my puppet master's true…if not identity then at least character.   
In the end I figured that there was nothing that I could do to stop such an attack, except to be vigilant and strong in the mind. I could always be vigilant, but becoming stronger in the mind would require some work, and, I joked to myself, perhaps some serious mental therapy.  
I was still sitting there in the tunnel with the package still unopened, when I noticed a face peeking around the corner of the tunnel mouth. As I watched out of the corner of my eye several new stalkers showed themselves. For a moment I was preparing myself for a fight when I realized that the silent watchers were only the kids I'd seen from the other day. I could even recognize the boy that gave me directions. There were some whispered warnings not to get too close, and some jokes made at my expense that I am willing to overlook only because they were made by children who didn't know better…or that I was listening in.  
I sighed, and the sound must have scared them because instantly the heads and the whispering voices disappeared and I was left alone once more. With the kids gone my attention once again focused on the box, which, with much caution, I opened.   
Rolling around in the wooden case were five small round orbs, four of which were green like the ones I saw in the store, the last one was a strange blue color. It hit me then as memories came rushing in and out again in a torrent of forgotten recollections before I could I could make sense of any of them. But now I knew what Materia was, the colored orbs were Materia, these were my Materia, I could remember that much, but what they did…well, that was still a mystery as was where I might have come across these five pieces.  
'The man in the Materia Store might be able to help me,' I thought to myself. Indeed, there were few enough people in the area who seemed able to do much more than drink themselves into a stupor, and I had been impressed with the young man in the store.  
So, closing the box back up, I stood up and walked back out into the gloom that was Midgar. Finding the store again was not too difficult, by now I'd walked around enough that I'd gotten a feel for the Sector 5 slums.   
The man seemed a little surprised to see me again, but this was still a business, and I was still a potential customer so he treated me to, if not a happy look, then at least a respectful one.  
"Hello again sir," he said, "Is there anything that I can do for you?"  
"Yes, actually," I replied. Not knowing what else to do I simply opened the box and let it drop onto the desk, the Materia plinking together as they rolled about in their wooden prison.  
Instantly the young man's eyes lit up a little, "do you know what these Materia are?"   
"Actually, I was hoping that you could tell me," I replied, "I'd lost them a while back you see and…"  
The young man cut me off, "don't worry sir, just give me a sec." With that he reached underneath the desk and pulled out what at first looked like a gun. I braced myself, but it turned out to be little more than a Materia 'reader' of some sort or another. He ran the gun-like contraption over the Materia, a low whistle issuing from his lips.  
He shook his head, "man, how the heck did you ever get Materia this powerful?...you fight in the war or something?" He laughed, "of course, you'd have to have fought in the war to get Materia this strong……sir…?"  
It must have been the word 'war' that jogged the memories, like the word 'Materia'. Only this time the memories didn't come in and out like a tidal wave that I could discern bits and pieces of…this time I was stuck in my own mind, in my own memories…  
There was an explosion over my head, dirt and sand flew in my eyes, and smoke covered the sky, blotting out the sun, turning it into a giant red glob in a sickly orange atmosphere. Machine gun fire was coming from all directions, dropping hot lead on our position like raindrops. I could see dead comrades lying around me, some riddled with bullets, others were scorched beyond recognition, and others lay bleeding from large slashes that could have only been delivered by…swords? At that moment a huge ball of fire smashed into the earthen wall to our trench, just barely missing me. It was followed up by an icy blast that left the rim of our pathetic little trench frozen solid. 'They're charging again!' shouted someone down the lines. Instantly the adrenaline was coursing through my body. With a battle cry on my lips I leapt out and away from our defenses, followed by a disheartened few. Before us the enemy were attacking. They were dressed like ninjas in black garb with a black veil covering their faces. Each had a long curved sword…a katana, if I remembered the name correctly, along with a machine gun, side arm, and a multitude of interesting and no doubt deadly bladed, and pointed, weapons stuck in their belts and tied to arms and legs. They let loose no war call, only surged foreword like a horde of the undead, silent and deadly as death itself. Yet, I'd been trained just for this; I could feel it in the very marrow of my bones. All those years spent in Battle Academy, the SOLDIER training that had weeded out the weak from the strong, and of course all the battles before this had hardened me…prepared me for just this moment, when I could show my true power.   
Wutai had taken a lot of ground near the start of the war; only with Shrina was Midgar's army able to stop the advancing ninja hordes. Not only had we stopped them, but we were pushing them back. We'd driven them back all the way to the gates of their pagoda topped capital. However, they'd made us pay with blood for every step we took, and by the time we'd finally reached the city of Wutai, to say that our forces had been severely depleted would be an understatement. It would be days before reinforcements arrived, and if the enemy was allowed to break through the lines now they might have the chance of turning the whole war around…and death would be the only solace any of us would find.   
Now the enemy was upon us, throwing themselves into the fray in suicidal attacks that marked either commendable bravery or pitiable stupidity…I had never decided which. The first masked face was bearing down on me, the glinting slanting eyes the only piece of evidence marking this being as a man and not some otherworldly wraith. He had his sword out, the metal shining in the light of a dying sun, but I had a sword too, and now I brought the huge blade to bear, somewhat to the surprise of my enemy…they always expected us to us our guns till the very end. The fact was that our troops overwhelmingly favored their guns in battle, a tactic that the enemy had used to their advantage by bringing every fight right to our trenches. Hundreds, even thousands of their men would die in these massed suicide attacks, but when the battle was over our own forces would always find themselves far more damaged then they'd ever expected. My huge SOLDIER 1st Class-type broadsword swung foreword, tolling off the blade of the other man like the pealing of cathedral bells. I felt myself drifting into my zone, where I was the strongest and fastest human alive…where I knew this fact with such conviction that it was very much like a physical force. The enemy was moving so very slowly before my eyes, and it was so very easy to knock aside his reprisal, only to swing around and end his suffering with a swift jab into his unprotected abdomen. The man fell to the ground, slowly gasping out his last, when a group of his friends decided to come to his aid. I had my Gravity Materia linked to my All Materia, and it was a simple thing to cast the massive black orb of pure gravitational force against the charging foes. The blow stopped them in their tracks, a few tried to heal, but they were too late to stop me from using my Contain Materia to blow them away with Flare. Suddenly a flash of light lit up in the corner of my eye with a 'pop pop pop' accompanying it. I felt darkness ready to overwhelm me as I realized I'd been hit dead on with heavy machine gun fire, but I quickly activated my Restore Materia and cast a Cure3 on myself followed up with Regen, just to keep me going in the heat of battle. I then used Break on the machine gun emplacement, leaving its gunners frozen stiff in the grip of hard cold stone. Finishing up with a strong Wall spell, I threw myself into battle once again with an utter abandon that made even the fanatical Wutai warriors step back in what might have been surprise…or perhaps respect.   
In the end, though, we were horribly outnumbered, outgunned, and in most cases, outskilled. I was running desperately low on energy, to the point where I knew I wouldn't be able to cast anything more than a simple Cure spell. Many of the few remaining soldiers were dead, and now the enemy could focus on the few of us who still survived. It was then, when I was sure that I had finally met the end, and that this battle ground would be the place where I gave my life in the protection of my family and friends, that a shadow passed over the plain.   
It was a man dressed in black, wielding an insanely long and wickedly-curved blade that I knew the name of only too well, Masamune. And there was only one man who could wield Masamune, Sephiroth…the great Sephiroth had come. How he ever made it to the battle so quickly I never did find out, but he saved my life as the waves of enemy soldiers hesitated and then actually drew back for fear of this man dressed in black and bearing long-handed death in his leather clad fist. While the enemy reeled and tried to turn itself around for a counter attack, I found a single Turbo Ether lying on the ground like a gift from the heavens, probably having once belonged to one of the bodies laying about around me. Drinking from it deeply, I could feel its cool rejuvenating effects taking place even as the ninja hordes turned themselves around for one last assault…one last stand against the indomitable Shinra Army. It had been in that battle that my weapon broke, shattering after being struck with a powerful Bolt3 spell. In the end we'd won though, Sephiroth's very presence enough to stir our ragged forces into a battle frenzy. By the time his troops arrived the battle was almost over, and much of the city in ruins. The leader of Wutai himself came out to present his sword to Sephiroth, our general treating this enemy commander with a surprising amount of respect. Then there was the trip home…my new sword given as a present…and the boredom…and the mission…where was it to?...funny how I couldn't seem to remember……remember what?...and then I snapped out of it…  
The young man was looking a little worried as he repeated himself, "You ok sir?"  
I looked up and nodded slowly, vaguely realizing that I was lying on the floor.  
"Good," replied the young man, not looking at all happy.  
I grappled my way back up to my feet, nearly falling over again when a searing pain rushed through my head.  
"Oh yah," the young man said, pointing to my head, "you bumped that pretty good on the way down." His previous question obviously forgotten, at least for the time being, he went straight on to business. "You have here a Mastered Cure, Gravity, Contain, Barrier, and All…I mean; most SOLDIERs don't have Materia this powerful…so you must've fought in the war."  
"Yah…" I replied, still a little dizzy from my fall, "I fought in the war…"  
"Hmmm," said the young man as he more closely examined my Materia with a jeweler's eyeglass. "My old man fought in the war, talked about it all the time like it was some sort of badge of respect or sumthin…anyway, he quit that when he died."  
Some of the memories had drifted back behind the shroud of uncertainty, but most of my vision of the battle remained intact. I could remember the almost palpable fear, the sweat, the blood, and I had to wonder to myself, why would anyone WANT to brag about something like that. I had no answer, so I turned my attention back to the shopkeeper.  
"Listen," the young man said, "This Mastered All is about as rare as Materia comes. It says in my Materia Monthly Magazine that one of these can go for millions of dollars. Now," he continued, "my old man left me some gil, and I've always had a good business, so I'll offer you 1.5 million gil for that All Materia. I figure I can probably sell it in a Wall Market auction for triple that price…whadda'ya say?"   
I didn't answer right away; instead I checked the young man's eyes to see if he might be cheating me in some way, but 1.5 million gil sure sounded like a fair price to me…and he certainly seemed to be sincere in his offer. So, coming to my final decision, I picked the All Materia out of the young man's hand and set it on the table.  
"Its yours," I said, and watched his eyes light up. This young shopkeeper looked like he might want to do more with his life, but somehow I knew that Materia was his true passion…and the young man must have felt like I was giving him the Holy Grail or something because he briskly shook my hand, gave me my gil, and smiled for the first time as he led me out the door, thanking me all the way.  
As I walked down the street I realized that I actually felt good about helping the young man…it was then that I realized that I still had no idea where the Shinra HQ was or how I was ever going to get there. I rushed back to the Materia Shop and found the young man busily scribbling out some figures on a piece of ruffled paper, the All Materia was nowhere in sight.  
"Oh," started the young man, looking a little startled, "do you need anything else?"  
"I was just wondering if you knew how to get to the Shinra headquarters," I said quickly, allaying his fears that I'd come back to reclaim his prize.  
"Ohhh…" he laughed nervously and sighed with relief. "Yah," he said, "that's on the top plate, biggest building you ever saw, but you can't get to it anymore."  
"Why?" I asked.  
The young man furrowed his brow, "you aren't from around here are you?"  
Clearing my throat I tried to answer truthfully, "no…no I suppose you could say that I'm not."  
"Hey!" the young man exclaimed, "You're the guy from the tunnel! Aeris went there nearly every day…well it looks like you're better now, and if Aeris cared about you that much I figure you can't be a bad guy…"  
He left off, realizing that I was still waiting for him to answer his original question.  
He coughed and continued, "you can't get up to the top plate anymore cause the only train station we were connected to was destroyed when Sector 7 collapsed."  
"Collapsed," I said, feeling confused, "wouldn't that kill a lot of people."  
"Yes," nodded the young man, "it sure did…killed hundreds…probably thousands. Shinra blamed it on AVALANCHE, but you can't really trust Shinra. Not that it matters, until they reroute the train tracks we're all stuck in this hellhole whether we like it or not."  
"Well," I replied, putting my hands out in front of me in my best attempt to sound hypothetical, "if someone wanted to get to this Sector 7, which way would one go?"  
"Oh, you'd go off down the side road over in that direction," replied the young man pointing off through the wall of his store. "But," he went on, "the gate's completely stopped up with debris, and even if you wanted to try to get through, you'd need more than good Materia."  
"Like what?" I replied.  
"Like a real weapon, and some supplies, but like I said the whole ways blocked up."  
The young man went back to work and I felt that it was time that I left, so, I walked out of the store and prepared to begin yet another part of my journey…the quest for a weapon. Luckily, I remembered the old RV with the advertisement for weapons, and figured that if I was going to find anything useful it would probably be in there.  
It did not take me long to find the shop, its strange design alone enough to endure it to the mind of a passerby. It looked exactly the same as the other day, rundown and dirty, just like everything else in the town, and as far as I had seen, Midgar itself. Upon walking in I soon realized that the inside was as grungy and unkempt as the outside, and my confidence in finding anything of value in this place was flagging fast. The shopkeeper himself was a huge fat man with small pig-like eyes, sitting at one end of the RV's cabin surrounded by junk and scrap metal with a desk in front of him covering part of his wide girth, while crumbs and stains covered his very wide shirt. His jowls were puffy with fat, and covered in about a day's growth of gray stubble. His short tussled hair was the same color as his wanna-be beard. What must have been a business partner was sitting at the other end of the vehicle, but looking disinterested with life altogether. Given the choice, I went for the fat man.  
"Excuse me," I said, "I'm looking for weapons."  
"Ah," the fat man replied, stirred from his reverie by my senseless intrusion. "Of course," he went on, wiping some of the crumbs off his barrel stomach. "Everyone needs a weapon right?"  
"Yes…" I said cautiously, "I suppose they might…"  
"Then you'd better get one here!" exclaimed the fat man, "We've got lots of grenades…lots of grenades, just got a shipment in yesterday. And Iron Bangles too, but I see you already have one sir." I looked at my arm, and there indeed was an iron armband with several…what were they again…Materia Slots, that was it!...funny how I'd never noticed it before. I turned my attention back to the fat man.  
"I need something more powerful than a handful of measly grenades," I replied.  
The fat man shook his head, "no I'm sorry sir, but grenades are it…" Yet something about his body language told me that there was more than 'just grenades'.  
"Come now," I said, "surely there must be something, I can pay any price you ask."  
My bait almost worked, I could see the man licking his fat lips with an even fatter tongue, his little pig eyes glinting with greed. I suppose that in the end it was my shabby appearance that betrayed me; no doubt he did not think that a man dressed as I was could ever afford anything of value.  
"Well…" he said, as if unable to make up his mind, "we might have something but…no…I'm sure that a man of your…caliber would not be interested in it."  
"Try me," I growled as I reached across the table with lightning speed and grabbed the poor fat shopkeeper by the throat before dragging him across the table and holding him out over the open floor, his little pudgy feet kicking helplessly in midair. It was really too bad that the shopkeeper didn't know about my tenuous mental state…perhaps he might have been more careful, but now I was getting annoyed with this fat man with the piggy eyes and word games, and I intended on getting directly to the heart of the matter as quickly as possible.  
"We'll try this one more time," I said as calmly as I could, "If you lie to me I will know, and then I will break your neck…understand?" He was in no position to argue, and my fingers were already digging deep into the flesh, becoming lost in the seemingly endless layers of fat. "Now," I started to ask the question again…the business partner still seemed to be in a completely different world… "Do you have anything better than grenades?" The man's face was turning blue and all he could do was nod his head, at the sign of which I dropped him onto the floor, shaking the entire RV, to huff and wheeze for breath.   
He got to his feet and stumbled back over to his desk, reaching underneath the table. I prepared myself for the worst, but he was only pressing a concealed button that activated the sliding mechanism on a secret compartment hidden in the vehicle's wall.   
The fat man reached inside and pulled out a long saber-like sword. It had a handguard that reached a little over half of the way down the handle, the handle itself was wrapped in a dark-blue, leather-like material. The blade was long and slightly curved like a saber, but there was also something of the Wutai blades…the katanas…in the blade as well. It was obviously a fine weapon, but I delayed reaching out for it so as to hear what the weapon shop owner had to say about it.  
"This," he rasped, his throat was still sore, "is a state-of-the-art prototype weapon being developed at Shinra." He looked at me, as if seeking approval, which I gave him in the form of a nod. He accepted this and continued, "Its code name is 'Reaper', and it's forged with laser technology out of pure titanium-mithril alloy. It has two pairs of linked Materia Slots, and two separate Materia Slots. The entire sword was developed to take a huge amount of damage, and to survive in any environment. The blade has been sharpened using laser technology, can cut through four-inch thick steel like a hot knife through butter, and is guaranteed to never dull." He looked up again, obviously proud with himself for remembering all that. He continued, "I don't think that we need to get into a discussion on how I got my hands on one of these…or how I know so much about them, suffice it to say that I have my sources." I accepted this statement and decided to inquire as to the price.  
"How much is it?" I asked.  
The fat man laughed, "Sir, I'm sure that it's far out of your price range."  
I smiled nastily and replied, "Try me."  
He obviously remembered what had happened the last time I'd said that, and he backed away a few steps before clearing his throat. "105, 000 gil," he said, "and not a single gil less."  
I casually reached into my pocket and counted out the amount I owed before his awestruck gaze. When I'd finished counting I tossed the gil onto the desk and snatched the sword out of his hands before he had time to blink. He was obviously very confused because he could only open his mouth, but no words came out. He looked at the gil lying on the desk, and then back at me, and then to my pocket where he'd seen all that other gil stashed. I decided to let him figure things out on his own and turned to walk away. At that moment something of the salesman inside of him crept out, and he shouted at me to wait.  
"Before you go!" he said, "it comes with a free sheath." He tossed me a black leather and iron bound sheath with a strap that fit around my back. I strapped on the sheath and walked out of the shop, fitting my Materia into the slots all down the blade's handguard, and wondering where I was going to get some supplies. 


	4. Steel Corks

Chapter 3  
  
I had not seen any sign of a grocery or supply store anywhere around, but, figuring I might as well exhaust all possibilities before tearing off into the great unknown, I walked into the Item Store adjacent to the Materia Shop. There seemed little difference between this store and the one I had just been in, except for the fact that a woman was standing behind the counter of this place of business.  
"How may I help you?" she asked in a cheery voice.  
I cleared my throat, "I'm looking for supplies."  
Oh," she replied, "then you've come to the right place. We have Potions, Phoenix Downs, Antidotes, and Tents."  
Hmmm…I could actually remember these names, and what's more, I could actually remember what they did. I decided that with my Mastered Cure Materia I wouldn't need Potions or Phoenix Downs, but Tents would probably be a necessity, and a couple of Antidotes wouldn't hurt…I just wished that they'd had some Ethers, or better yet some Turbo Ethers in stock.  
"I'll take three Tents and five Antidotes," I replied.  
"Excellent," said the woman, "would you like me to bag them?"  
"Sure," I replied and watched her put the merchandise in a leather backpack.  
"You do know that the bag costs extra?" she said as she handed me the backpack.  
"It's fine, now…what do I owe you?"  
She seemed to do some mental math, then she typed something in on the small and horribly outdated computer she had.  
"2000 gil," was her reply.  
She didn't seem to be in a very talkative mood, so after paying her I left, said goodbye to Sector 5, and started walking on down the path pointed out to me by the man in the Materia Store.  
The hike was not too difficult all in all. It was very much the same as my journey to the church, filthy, dirty, and mostly covered with garbage. One really had to start wondering whether Midgar even had a waste management program…or sewers for that matter. But there was little I could do about it, little I though that anyone could do about it, so I just walked on and ignored the mountains of waste to either side as best I could. However, it was not long before I came up to a bit of an obstacle, a six foot wide concrete wall reaching up into space so far above me that it might have gone all the way up to the upper plate for all I knew…but I doubted it. In any case it was too high and slick for me to climb, and I certainly wasn't going to be blasting my way through it any time soon, not with the risk of the entire wall falling down on me. Luckily my problem was solved for me because as I walked along the base I found a single opening that had been drilled into the wall. Figuring that this was probably as good as it was going to get, I slipped on through into Sector 6.   
Sector 6, or what I could see of it, appeared to be little more than a very large construction site. Perhaps they were fixing damage caused by the Sector 7 collapse, I didn't know. With no other place to go I started on through, unsure of myself or the strange monster-like shadows slitting in and out among the work equipment and debris.  
The entire journey was itself turning out to uneventful, and I was just becoming relaxed when I heard a loud screech from behind me. It was a sound that might have only been replicated by a cat using a chalkboard for a clawing post. It was a sound to make your back arch and face contort in pain. I whirled around just in time to knock the snake-like creature back onto the ground. It was, as I've said, snake-like, but it had four skinny legs like an insect, each foot tipped with a very sharp looking claw. The monster's huge mouth was round, taking up nearly the entire head portion of its body. The inside of this mouth was literally covered in thousands of tiny sharp teeth. It was perhaps the single most disgusting thing I'd ever seen before…this little monster.  
It screeched again and leapt at me a second time. This time I was prepared, and unslinging Reaper, turned the upstart little beast into two pieces. The two halves were still wriggling on the floor, making gurgling noises when I left. I turned around for a moment to see the dying monster's friends come out to finish the work I had started, but they would not approach me.   
I found an old paper sack and used that to wipe off my blade before returning it to my sheath. By then I had drawn near the exit, and walked out to find myself in an old, partially destroyed playground.  
It was an unsettling sight, seeing this place where children once played and laughed, destroyed and ripped apart. 'But by what?' I had to ask myself, it looked as if an explosion had gone off near here. If an explosion had gone off near here then perhaps that meant I was near Sector 7, or what was left of Sector 7.  
Indeed, I was not far from the truth because just up the road, past some overturned ruins of smoldering homes, I found a great gate marked 'Sector 7'. Unfortunately, like I'd been told, the entire entrance was completely blocked up by debris, making entrance impossible. However, I had to try or how else was I going to get out of this place? The concrete wall that the gate was built into looked to be just as tall as the one in front of Sector 6, meaning that climbing up was not an option. Without anything else to do, I began searching for some way through the steel cork. I spent the entire day there, rummaging through the trash and garbage, trying to find some way through…but in vain.  
I didn't think all that much while I worked, but when I did it was mainly about what I was going to do if I ever got inside Sector 7. The train station was obviously destroyed, but if I could find the tracks somehow, I thought, perhaps I could follow them up to the upper world? It seemed like a long shot to me, but at the time it was the best that I could come up with.  
Finally, however, I was too exhausted to go on, and laid down on a flat slab of metal which had pushed its way partially out of the mess. As I rested there, my attention began to focus on a single rodent crawling around in the wreckage, searching for food probably. It didn't seem to notice me, and went on with its search without a single care. 'If I was that small,' I thought to myself, 'I could probably find a way through this (indicated the debris).' It was meant to be a joke, but at that moment the rat must have realized it was being watched because it immediately sat up on its hind legs and sniffed the air, its ears twitching about for the tiniest sound. Not wanting my new found friend to run off on me I sat as perfectly still as I could, trying not to even breathe.  
However, it wasn't enough; it must have caught my sent because it dashed off up the pile to near the very top, where it simply disappeared.   
This obviously pricked my curiosity, and so I climbed further up to investigate. I could find no trace of the rat, the creature had just seemingly disappeared, however, on closer inspection I did locate a single tiny hole that was just big enough for a rodent to fit through. I peered through the opening to see if it was nothing more than a small cave or enclave for the rat to hide, but there was nothing there except darkness. That meant that the hole must continue on. I backed down the wall of trash a bit to get a better look at the location of the hole. There was a metal plate wedged over the hole that looked like it could be moved. 'Perhaps if I get that out of the way I'll be able to see where the tunnel goes…and how large it is,' I thought to myself.  
However, this is was much easier said than done, as when I said 'wedged', I really meant wedged. It took me the better part of an hour of pulling, pushing, heaving, and huffing until finally…finally the plate jerked from its prison, a few smaller pieces of broken machinery fell down the slope of trash. I tossed the metal plate away and moved in closer to investigate. To my great delight I found that not only was the hole man-sized, but that it seemed to continue roughly straight up. If the plate lights hadn't started to dim at that moment I probably would have rushed up the tunnel without another thought, but with night setting in I though I'd better find someplace to stay.  
It looked as though everyone had moved out of the area, probably because of the Sector 7 collapse, and I really didn't want to spend a second night out on the street…not when I had around 500,000 gil I could spend on lodgings.  
As I sat up on the pile of debris, looking out over the skeleton that had once been a playground, I noticed some lights and noise coming from the direction off to my left. There was a road which led off in that direction, but since my focus had been on getting into Sector 7, I'd ignored it. My only choices being to sleep on the cold ground or to investigate the mysterious lights, I shouldered my backpack and sword and chose to investigate.   
The journey was one made in near darkness, the shadows of garbage mountains the only thing keeping me on the main path. However, the walk was not a long one, and before I knew it I had turned a corner to find myself faced with a wild and brightly lit town.  
A large neon sign greeted me and proclaimed the towns name to be 'Wall Market'. I remembered the Materia Shop owner talking about this place. I also gathered from its name that this was some sort of large consortium for businesses, the 'Wall' in the name obviously came from the fact that it was literally wedged up in the narrow triangle between the concrete wall separating Sector 6 from Sector 7, the wall separating Sector 6 from Sector 5, and the base of the central pillar. From where I was I could literally look up and see the massive central pillar in all its monolithic glory. I could also see the train tracks running around its cylindrical sides, unfortunately I did not notice any way to get up to the tracks from here, and at night such a venture would have meant almost certain suicide, so I decided to get a good nights sleep before exploring more in the morning. Luck, it would see, was with me for the moment because the first building I came upon was an inn.  
The person at the counter seemed nice enough, a middle aged woman with a tired, but not unpleasant voice. She was a little suspicious of my sword at first, but once I told her I was only looking for a room she seemed to relax.  
"The room's 10 gil a night," she said, "if you want dinner be in the dinning room in 20 minutes." She handed me a key with a number on it, and then walked out of the front office and back down a hall. It was only after she left that I realized I had no idea where the dinning room was. 'Whatever,' I thought to myself, I could find it later. In the mean time I needed to drop my stuff off in my room, not a difficult task really. My room was on the second floor of the inn, but did not have a window. It was for the better I figured, since that blocked out some of the noise from the street. And noise there was indeed. There were boom-boxes with the bass on full, the 'music' was literally shaking the walls. It wasn't just one type of music either, I was a cacophony of chaos…rap, techno, punk, rock…all were crashing against the walls of the inn like some intangible besieging army. There was laughter too, and not nice laughter either, although this was mostly drowned out by the music.  
I put my bag in a corner and tested out my bed. It was comfortable enough, better anyway than my old lumpy mat. There was a single dresser, but I had no clothes except those on my back. This got me to thinking, the clothes that I was wearing were old rags, half eaten by moths. I was in one giant market with money to spare, why shouldn't I get at least one pair of decent clothes. One pair sounded right, it would be easy to travel with anyway, and it would probably be more comfortable than the clothes I had.  
So, with this short-term goal in mind, I walked back out onto the street to do of all things…shop. The music was a lot louder out here than it had been in the hotel, and it made no sign of softening as the night wore on. Although the plate lights had turned themselves off, the glow from the uncountable neon signs and flashing strobe lights made it feel like the middle of day in a world surrounded by shadow.  
It did not take me long to find a clothes shop. It was run by an elderly man and his daughter. There were a surprising number of clothes lined and stacked on hangers and shelves along the walls, most of them women's clothing. In the back there was what appeared to be a changing room. I walked up to the counter, the old man looking at me a little strangely.  
"I'd like a pair of clothes," I said.  
"Hmmm…one of them hu?" he said, squinting his eyes, "you know I'm not one to judge, but a tough looking guy like you…?"  
I was a little confused, "what are you talking about?"  
"Women's clothes," he replied.  
"What?" I said, getting more confused by the second.  
"Women's clothes," he said again, "don't you want women's clothes?"  
"No!" I practically shouted, horrified and extremely worried all at the same time. 'What kind of place is this?' I had to wonder. "Why would I want women's clothes?" I asked.  
"Nevermind, nevermind," the man said quickly, his hands gesturing wildly to try and make his point, "its just that some of the men around here are into…that, umm…sort of….thing, if you get my meaning."  
"No," I said again, "I want men's clothes, that's it…you do sell men's clothes here don't you?"  
"Actually sir," replied the man, "we normally don't, but it just so happens that the last order form was misread and the shipping company sent us some men's clothing. Normally I'd have sent it back, but with the train service out I can't. If you're interested I can sell the clothes to you…all they're doing is taking up space."  
"Fine then," I said, "let's see them."  
I was in luck, not only were the clothes for men, but they were Good men's clothes…at least, one of the voices was telling me that they were good clothes while another was talking about how I'd simply draw attention to myself. Another was whining about the color, another thought that they'd help intimidate people, a couple were telling me that the look was *so* cliché, while another was, for some reason, singing an advertisement jingle that I could remember from my childhood.  
"Let me try it on," I asked.  
"Sure," replied the man.  
I took the clothes and walked into the dressing room, which was really not a whole lot more than a one time bathroom stall with a curtain draped over the open end.  
A couple of minutes later I was examining myself in the full body mirror that had been nailed onto one of the walls. I could see that I'd regained some body mass since I'd woken up, but I was still maintaining that 'lean' quality. My hair had started to grow again as had my beard, I ran my hands through it trying to decide whether to shave it off or not. However, my face was still gaunt and hard-lined, and I expected it always would be. Surprisingly enough, not a whole lot of people had seemed to notice my eyes. Then I moved on to a critique of my clothes.  
I could only speculate on where the outfit had supposed to go, but I was thinking that it was probably headed to a store like Goths R' Us or Black is Back Wholesalers…or something like that.  
In any case I had to admit that I liked the black trenchcoat. The black, buttoned, fold-over shirt, black gloves, black pants, and black leather and metal studded belt seemed a little much, but they were comfortable and seemed to be made of excellent material. They even came with black, leather, steel-toed boots. Most of the voices agreed that I looked good, the more sensible one thought that the material was durable, and the last one was still singing that blasted jingle. Having made up my mind I took the gil from the pocket of my old clothes and put it in one of the inside pockets of my trenchcoat.  
I walked out to find the old man dutifully waiting.   
"How do you like it?" asked the man, "it seemed a little dark to me but…hey! you don't look half bad."  
"Thanks," I said, "what do I owe you?"  
He walked over to the cash register and typed in a few things, mumbling to himself under his breath.  
"4,000 gil," he said, "and it comes with a free spiked collar if you're interested."  
I paid the man, but had to pass on the collar, I figured that you could carry a look only so far….  
I returned to my bedroom just in time to remember dinner. There did not seem to be anyone else staying at the inn that night, so there was no one to ask as to where the dinning room might be. So, with options limited as they usually were I walked downstairs and down the hall where the hotel owner had gone. I found a door there and could smell something cooking from beyond. I walked in to find myself, not in a dinning room per say, but more of a kitchen with a table set up in it. The hotel owner was working over the stove, an apron tied around her waist.  
"Ah good," she said, finally noticing me, "I'm glad you came for dinner. There's no one else staying here tonight so you'll be eating with me and my son, if that's all right with you."  
"That would be fine," I confirmed.  
Her eyes squinted up a bit, "you look a bit different," she said, a little unsure of herself.  
"It's the new clothes," I replied, "do you like them?" It was an odd question to ask a stranger, but she seemed like a nice older woman altogether, a little overstressed perhaps…but still a nice woman.  
"They're nice," she said, "a bit…."  
"Dark?" I supplied.  
She nodded, "That's the word."  
"My old clothes were falling apart," I said, "and this was all they had."  
"You went to the clothes shop huh?" the woman replied.  
I nodded.  
"It has some great clothes I'll admit," she said, "but some of their customers…well, they're a bit strange you might say…especially the men."  
"They have issues," I said, "the old man wanted to know what kind of women's clothes I wanted."  
The woman nodded, "it's sad to see how the area has deteriorated in just the past few years. I can remember when I was a girl…long before the war; you could actually grow plants around here. I can even remember a small park that was right next to my house. That was in Sector 3 mind you, but…oh I must be boring you."  
"No," I replied, sitting down at the table, "not at all."  
"Dinners ready anyway," she said, seeming to appreciate my willingness to listen to her stories. "And here comes my son…right on schedule."  
He was younger than me; probably in his late teens or early twenties at the most. He had dark brown hair cut short in the latest style with a black spiked bracelet on either wrist and a light blue shirt with jeans.  
"Hi," he greeted me, and then walked up to his mom.  
"Hi mom," he said and gave her a hug; I didn't know how he did it without impaling her on the spikes on his wrists. He then came and sat down at the table in the chair across from me. I greeted him and then we turned our attention to dinner. It was made up of grilled chicken and rice, both were delicious and I washed it all down with a glass of water. No one talked very much, in fact the silence was almost solemn, like the family had something to be sad about. Since I was a guest I didn't think it very polite to interrupt, and so the entire meal continued uneventfully.   
When I was finally finished I pushed the plate away with a sigh.  
"Thank you for dinner Ms…"  
"Mrs. Herron," she said. "My husband may be dead, but I still like being called Mrs."  
Her son seemed a little uncomfortable with the conversation because he quickly excused himself and left. I quickly followed suit with a 'thanks again, but I need to get some sleep' kind of excuse.  
I was glad that I'd left the ceiling light on in my room while I was gone, or else I'd have had to walk into a room of total darkness, and one of the voices, the one that I tended to listen to the most, thought that walking into a dark room was a really bad thing.  
However, everything appeared to be just as I had left it, and so I got ready for bed. The mattress was nice and soft, and I was really tired, so I was asleep in moments…  
  
Flames encircled me, shadow flames that sucked in the darkness, fed off it like a sponge. Flickering, glowing, smoldering, growing, the world about me burned and above it all was the laughter. Laughter, laughter, laughter…like a broken record made of a drunken jester it went on and on and on. Words like 'JENOVA', 'Nibelheim', 'Hojo', and 'Ancient' poured into my conscious and out again, leaving the feeling that the void was once again inside me. And one word more than the others, ringing above the rest, was 'Sephiroth'. And the laughter turned to screams, horrible, terrified screams, the kind of screams that make you want to cry out in pure terror at the realization that there is something out there that can make someone…or something scream that way. Then the screaming was real…  
  
It took me a moment to come to my senses, for a second I though that I was still trapped in my dream, or that I had returned to the eternal void. Both thoughts scared me, but I quickly realized that I was back in my room, and that I had simply turned out the light before going to bed.  
I stumbled over to the light switch and flipped it. I had to cover my face because the sudden glare hurt my eyes. It was then that I realized that the screams were indeed real, that they were coming from down the hall. I quickly strapped on Reaper and headed towards…of all places, the screams.  
Mrs. Herron was standing in the doorway to one of the rooms I had though empty, but she was only crying, not screaming. It was still coming, as if my nightmare was mocking me, daring me to escape its madness.  
I pushed past the crying woman into a room very much like mine, except that it had a window. Mrs. Herron's son was lying in one corner, knocked out from a heavy blow to the head. On the other side of the room was the bed, which had a young woman no older than the woman's son scrunched up against the bedposts, clutching a small baby in her arms. I decided that she had probably been the screamer; her eyes were also red with crying. And the reason for the screaming I could assume was the two very bad looking men standing in front of her. One of them was quite short and skinny as a rail; he wore round glasses which flashed evilly in the lamplight. He did not have a single strand of hair on his head. The second man was the exact opposite. He was around 7'5 ft. and had a full beard and a large mat of blond hair. His body was built like a tank, and I am pretty sure that he could have crushed a horse's skull with one hand.  
"Well well, what is this?" asked the small man. "An intruder I see," his voice was higher than I though was physically possible. If it wasn't for an aura of danger that seemed to surround this tiny man I might have even called him womanish.  
"Well," he continued, "this IS an inn, so I will allow you to walk out of here right now with your skin. Otherwise Jimmy here will be forced to remove you peacefully…and I mean piece by piece by piece…get it?"  
This certainly was an interesting situation. A weeping woman and her knocked out son on one side, and a beautiful girl with her baby on the other side surrounded by men whose purpose for being here I probably didn't want to know. In the end I'm not sure if there's a man on the planet who could walk out on a woman and her child when they are in obvious danger, and in the end my guardian instincts won out.  
"I don't think the lady likes you," I said, "perhaps you should leave…*now*."  
"Tsk tsk," replied the little man shaking his head, "I'd hoped you'd be smarter than this." He snapped his fingers, "Jimmy, show this gentleman the way out…the window."  
I went for my sword, but for a man of his size Jimmy was surprisingly fast and nearly smashed my face in with the first punch. I ducked in the nick of time, and avoided another swing and came out in front of Jimmy and planted my knee between his legs. It might be a cheap move…I know, but given the choice of loosing a little pride and getting one's arms and legs ripped off…most people go with the damaged pride.  
Jimmy grunted a little bit and backed away. It was then that I realized he was mute! Strange, physical deformities were rare, but then I noticed the mass of scar tissue over his throat that was mostly covered by his beard.  
However, at that time I could not afford to feel sorry for him, and only rejoiced in the fact that he couldn't use any magic.  
Yet, I just didn't feel right about taking advantage of him like this, first the cheap shot to the groin; now I learn that he can't use magic…I just couldn't bring myself to pull out my sword.  
The muffled moaning had stopped and I watched as Jimmy came back at me, this time clutching a very large knife that looked quite small when it was clutched in his massive fist. I guess that he had learned to take every advantage he could, one being his size, the other being the fact that he had no sense of honor when it came to fighting.  
The first strike was poorly aimed, and not really meant to do anything but put me on my guard. The one problem was that I could remember this class. In the fog of the vision that I now only partially remembered I could recall this training session where I'd scored in the top of my class. "Close-Combat Training' they'd called it. And this was a big problem for Jimmy, and his arm.   
I was able to deftly avoid the next two attacks with little trouble, truth be told he would have been better off sticking to fist fighting. The next jab I was ready for. I moved to the left, and as his huge right arm came sailing past I grabbed the thick wrist with my right hand, and slammed my left hand into his overextended elbow. There was a sickening 'pop', and I used the giant's own momentum and broken arm to flip him over onto his back. My sword came out this time, but it didn't matter, he was unconscious.  
Now I turned my attention towards the skinny little man who had the girl around the neck with one arm, his other was busy holding a gun to her head.  
"Who do you think you are?!" he was practically in hysterics (obviously Jimmy didn't often loose). "You think you can mess with Kotch and get away with it? No way man! You're gonna get wasted for this…oh yah."  
"Just put the gun down," I said. The girl had stopped crying, but the look of utter terror on her face was far far worse. She was clutching her baby like a shipwreck victim clings to the floating plank. I knew I had to get the man to put the gun down, and yet I couldn't tear myself away from those eyes. 'She's helpless and she knows it,' I thought to myself. 'She's scared, but all she knows is that she's in pain…that her baby's in danger…that her baby is scared. She's like I was in the void,' I thought, getting angrier and angrier as I stared into those deep green eyes.  
The man was shouting something, and I brought myself back to reality to hear what it was he wanted.  
"Listen," he said, "I think we're both reasonable men, so here's the deal. You let me get out of here and the girl doesn't come to any harm…how is that hmmm?"  
I smiled that nasty smile I seemed to be so good at, wearing all black probably only enhanced the effect.   
"That sounds good alright," I replied, the little man smiled in a victorious way. "However," I stopped him as he began to move toward the door, "I think I have a better one."  
He looked at me quizzically, but stopped.  
I could remember guys like this, they were always bullies. I could remember bullies alright. They liked to act tough, but get 'em in a bad situation and they broke down. They never cared about anyone but themselves…and survival was their main goal.  
"How about you let the girl go and then leave, or I kill you."  
He laughed; it was an incredibly annoying fox laugh, more like a bark than a laugh.  
"How about I just kill the girl then?" he asked.  
"If you do," I pointed out, "you will die, but not immediately. I will make sure that you suffer more than you ever thought possible. I will make you beg me to kill you. I will turn you into a weeping, groveling, sniveling, cockroach of a man before I kill you…you think you can handle that?"  
He licked his lips nervously.  
"Alright…" he said, "I'll let the girl go…and you'll let me go."  
"Correct," I said, "sound reasonable enough to you?"  
"Alright…here she comes." He pushed the girl and her baby onto the ground before opening fire on me with the hand gun. I was too fast though, and while a quick Barrier deflected his bullets, my wrist flicked out and sent my sword flying.  
He wasn't prepared for it and the blade knocked the gun out of his hand, as well as several fingers. He went down on the floor almost immediately, clutching his hand in pain and trying to stop the blood flow.  
As I approached, his eyes grew wide with horror. I picked him up by the scruff of his collar and held him up over the floor.  
"What…what are you going to do?" he asked.  
"You upheld your part of the bargain," I said, motioning towards the girl and her baby which were being helped up by Mrs. Herron. "Therefore," I continued, "I will uphold mine."  
The man's eyes opened in surprise and hope, "You mean…you mean you're going to let me go."  
"Yes," I said, "I said that I'd let you out if you freed the girl and out you shall go…I just never specified the door."  
As we approached the window the little man let out a moan.  
"I believe," I said, "that you tried to have me thrown out of this not too long ago."  
"Listen sir," the man said, "it was all a mistake you see…just a mistake. We never meant to hurt the girl, honest."  
"And why should I believe the word of scum like you!" I shouted, "Why!" I continued, "You are getting a lot better than you deserve, at least you have a chance of surviving a fall from a second story window."  
With that I opened the glass window pane and flung the stinking bundle of garbage out into the night, a faint scream following him all the way down to the ground. I peered out the window. The man was laying still, his neck twisted in a very strange angle; I knew that he had not survived.  
At that moment his partner, the giant Jimmy woke up. For some reason I felt a twisted sort of compassion for this man, and decided to let him leave if he opted to do so. One look at me, the open window, his missing partner, and the dismembered fingers lying on the ground and he opted to leave…as quickly as humanly possible.  
"Oh thank you sir! Thank you!" Mrs. Herron was crying, "you saved my little girl…thank you!"  
"Please," I said, "This can wait till morning…right now I need some sleep." 


	5. A Journey Begun

Chapter 4  
  
It took a little while to get Mrs. Herron and the girl who was apparently her daughter settled down. Mrs. Herron's son remained unconscious and I had to lift him up and put him in the hotel room's bed. Finally, with a promise that I'd wait around the next morning to let them thank me; I went back to my room and dropped off to sleep once again.  
My rest remained uninterrupted for the remainder of the night, and soon I could hear someone knocking. I woke up and the knocking continued. I went over to the wall, switching on the light first, and opened the door. It was Mrs. Herron's son standing there, obviously recovered from the night before.  
"Ummm…" he said, "I hope I didn't wake you up."  
What was the point in telling him the truth?   
"No," I said, "I was up."  
"Good," he replied, "my name is Dennis…I'd like to thank you for helping my family last night."  
"Well," I said, "my name is Zack, and it was just something that I needed to do."  
"Yah, well," he went on, "there's not a whole lot of people around here that would have done what you did…standing up to those guys like that…my mom would like to thank you personally so when you're ready she'll be downstairs."  
I thanked him and closed the door behind him as he left.  
It didn't take me long to strap on Reaper and load up by bag. With nothing else to carry I turned off the light and closed the door to my room, locking it behind me.  
I walked downstairs and found Mrs. Herron waiting for me.  
"If you want to use the bathroom to shave you can," she said, "I'll just wait here."  
I thanked her and decided that I did indeed need a shave. I walked into the bathroom and shut the door behind me. I took of my trenchcoat and hung it from a hanger nailed into the top of the door. I then stood in front of the mirror and scratched my beard, still unsure as to what I was going to do with it.  
I liked being clean shaven, and yet I figured that I probably didn't want to be recognized by anybody…it might make for awkward situations. In the end I came to a consensus and gave myself a short and clean-cut goatee. Happy with the end result, I washed my face with water, put my trenchcoat back on, and walked out to find Mrs. Herron waiting almost exactly as I had left her, only now with her daughter and son standing to wither side of her.  
"So…" I started, "what was that all about last night?"  
Mrs. Herron nodded slowly, as if trying to find the right words to begin with.  
"You know of a man named Don Corneo?" she asked.  
"No," I said, "should I?"  
"Well," she said, "he used to be the most powerful man in Wall Market…since Wall Market is basically Sector 6; I guess you could say that he was in charge of the entire Sector."  
"Go on," I said, becoming interested.  
"All that might have been alright," Mrs. Herron said, "but the man was a pervert. He got rich with his 'Honey Bee Inn'." She said the name like it was a curse, "and you can imagine what kind of things went on in there." I had a vague idea… "Anyway," she continued on, "my husband and I both hated the whole business, but you never wanted to talk bad about the Don or else you usually ended up sleeping with the Whole Eaters." I didn't ask what Whole Eaters were because I got the idea that I probably didn't want to know. "Our twins," she said, "you've met Dennis and Laura, were still young then and we wanted to keep them safe from this sort of thing. Unfortunately, after my husband died it got a lot harder to keep Laura a secret, and the Don eventually found out about her. He thought that she should work for him…and you knew what that meant. Laura refused, but he threatened our whole family and so she finally gave in. She only worked at that horrible place one night though. After that the Don got into trouble with Shinra, which was right after Sector 7 collapsed. He had to go into hiding, and Laura escaped. However, even though she only worked there one night we found out that she'd gotten pregnant. I asked my son to go and find the father (my son has a lot of friends you know), so that we could get him to take care of my daughter and the child. It wasn't to be though," Mrs. Herron said, the memories obviously painful. "He turned out to be a hotshot business man and politician up on Sector 4's top plate, basically putting him out of our reach." She continued, "Then Corneo's right hand man, Kotch, came into power. He took over the Don's business and all his old contacts. He's basically become the new Don and he wanted Laura back, and when he found out about the baby, he wanted her to get rid of that too. We weren't going to let him do that so we acted like we'd sent her away while keeping her hidden in the inn. Last night Kotch's men found her…those two were some his most dreaded agents. Who knows what they would've done if you hadn't been there?"  
I shook my head, "I just did what I needed to do Mrs. Herron…I told your son before that there was no way I'd have walked out of there…it just wouldn't have been the right thing to do." Dennis nodded approvingly while Laura, his twin sister, still stood there serenely, cradling her baby in her loving arms.  
"The right thing huh?" Mrs. Herron said, "not a lot of people seem very interested in what's right anymore…just in what gets them money and power."  
"That may be," I said, "but I really have to get going."  
"Where," she asked.  
I didn't see why I shouldn't tell her where, "Sector 7."  
"You know how to get up to Sector 7?" asked Dennis.  
"Well…" I said, "I think I've found a way…but I can't be sure yet…"  
"Take Laura with you," Mrs. Herron interrupted, "please take her with you. Kotch won't hurt us, both my son and I are very highly respected citizens, but he'll get at my daughter if he can. I you have a secret way into Sector 7 then maybe you could get Laura out of here…out of that disgusting man's reach. Please do this one last favor for us."  
I wasn't really prepared to take on another person, but once again I just couldn't leave the family hanging…not after everything else I'd done.  
"Fine," I said, "I'll do it." Laura smiled as did Dennis, they both had nice smiles. Mrs. Herron was about to say something else but I interrupted her. "She'll need a weapon," I said, "and Materia if you have any."  
"That man Jimmy left his knife here last night," Laura said. It was the first time I'd heard her talk, and it was a truly charming sound, like the singing of a nightingale in a cool summer twilight. 'She could be a wonderful singer if she wanted to be,' I thought to myself.  
"Alright," I said, "you go get that and anything else you think you'll need, but remember to pack light. I'm going to get some food; I'll come back when I'm finished." Worried looks were exchanged, but all agreed to my plan.  
  
About ten minutes later I returned with a pack that was heavier than before, filled with nonperishable food-stuffs that I figured would survive the trip best. There was no one at the front register, and I could hear no one in the inn at all. I became very worried indeed and began a search. I could find no sign of struggle, yet the house continued to be strangely silent. I continued on back, coming to the door leading to the kitchen. I opened it slowly, expecting to be attacked by some hidden intruder. Instead, I found Mrs. Herron and her two children sitting around the kitchen table with heads bowed, as if expecting the end to come any second. Mrs. Herron had her back to me and the door, but she could still hear it creak as it opened.  
"You can try to get my daughter sir!" she said, "but you'll have to get through me first!" She whipped around clutching a very large meat cleaver. Her eyes opened wide in surprise, and she almost dropped the cleaver. "You…you came back?" she gasped. Dennis and Laura both appeared to be dumbfounded.  
"Of course I came back," I said, "why wouldn't I?"  
"Well," said Mrs. Herron, "it's just that we thought…well, we thought that you were just giving an excuse to get out of here…the whole 'I'm going for food'. Now, I wouldn't have blamed you for leaving, but…you came back!"  
"Yes," I said, "I'm back…and what is the cleaver about?"  
"Oh, this…" she looked a little ashamed, "we heard someone come in and we thought that Kotch had just been waiting for you to leave and had sent more men. I figured that if we were going out we might as well go down fighting."  
I nodded; I think I had at least a rudimentary grasp of the situation.  
"So…where's the knife and supplies I asked you to pack…here's the food," I said, plopping the leather bag down on the table.  
Oh my goodness!" cried Mrs. Herron, "we didn't think we needed to pack since we were sure you'd run off…you just wait right here and we'll get Laura ready as fast as we can!"  
  
Five minutes later she was totally ready. She was wearing a white shirt with a tan vest and some blue jeans made out of an extremely thick material. She also had a pair of leather boots on and a belt. Perhaps by luck alone, Jimmy's sheath had fallen out during the fight, and she'd stuck this in her belt along with the knife. The weapon might have been little more than a small dagger to Jimmy, but to this young woman it would serve as a short sword quite nicely. On her back she had slung a baby carrier, and her little child now rode there, fast asleep. I had to admit, looking at her, that she was very beautiful. She had deep sea-green eyes and wonderful chestnut brown hair like her mother and brother…and Aeris. When I remembered Aeris I was struck with a slight pang of guilt for taking so much time, and I decided that I must get to Shinra HQ as quickly as possible.   
"OK," I said, "are you ready to go?"  
"Wait a second," Laura replied, and grabbed a small purse with things I suppose she thought she might need. "Now I'm ready," she said.  
"Fine," I replied, "then let's get going."  
We got out of Wall Market quickly enough, it seemed like everybody had seen the fight last night because as we came past everyone hide and tried their best to avoid us…or maybe just me, like the plague. At first I thought that they might simply be afraid of me, and then I remembered that a powerful gangster would be after our hides very soon, and that innocent civilians would probably be considered acceptable losses in a fire-fight.  
Luckily, either Jimmy had not returned to his boss, or Kotch had yet to give his reprisal, but we met with no resistance as we left the bright lights and flashy colors of Wall Market…not to mention the noise, far behind. In any case it did not take us long to make it back to the abandoned play ground.  
"I remember this place," said Laura, "I used to play here as a child."  
I thought about saying something, but stopped. The two of us just stared at the broken corpse of a slide, the remains of a broken swing…forgotten memories coming back too late to defeat the remorseless march of time.  
"Come on," I said, "If this path doesn't work we'll need to find a new way…and I want to be out of Sector 6 by dark."  
I showed her the way up the pile of debris, while she showed a surprising amount of fortitude when it came to the awful smell that seemed to saturate most of Midgar. 'Of course,' I reminded myself, 'she has lived here her entire life and you've only had a couple of days to get used to this giant dung heap.'  
However, overall she seemed unimpressed with my hole.  
"This is it?" she asked, "why, a rat could barely fit through this." I'd forgotten that I'd put the metal plate back in front of the tunnel the day before to hide it from passersby. I quickly removed the steel plate (which came off a lot easier this time), and turned back around to hear apologies…none came. "You want me to climb through that?" Laura asked, a little exasperated, "why, you have no idea how far up it goes, or even if it hits a dead end. We could go crawling around in there for days and never find our way out to the top." Well, so much for gratitude.  
"Listen," I replied, "I checked it (well I had…sort of…if you count a cursory glance as 'checking') and it goes up for a while. The only reason that I had to stop my search was because it was getting late and I wanted to find someplace to sleep. Now," I continued, "I didn't ask to have you along, I'm doing it as a favor. If you don't like it then I suppose you can walk back home."  
She gasped, I'm not sure if it was genuine remorse or fear of Kotch, although I suspect the former (she really did seem to be nice person), and she immediately apologized for her reckless comments.  
"But," she said after she'd apologized, "How will I get my baby up through there? The tunnel is too tight for me to fit through with him on my back."  
"So," I said, "The baby's a boy?"  
"Yes," Laura replied, "I named him Christian Glen Herron Jr., after my father."  
"It's a nice name," I said, although I thought it a little fancy for a child born under the unfortunate 'circumstances'.  
"Thank you," she replied, "but you still haven't answered my question."  
"Yes…well, ummm," I started, at a loss for words, "could you…maybe…flip the baby carrier around so that it's up against your…'chest' instead of your back."  
"It's not designed to do that, it's only supposed to be placed on the back," she said, thankfully ignoring my embarrassment.  
This was a problem, and I sat down to think it over. It wasn't long before an idea came into my head, and, getting my own backpack, looked inside to see if there was enough room in there…there was.  
I flipped the pack around and motioned to Laura, "put him in here."  
"What?" she was horrified.  
"Listen," I repeated myself, "put him in the backpack, there's enough room in there. I should be able to fit in the tunnel with the backpack in front…it's the only way."  
With much reluctance Laura put the baby into the backpack so that it would ride like a carrier. Without the baby in it, the real baby carrier became quiet flexible and I knew that Laura would not have any trouble with it. I wasn't sure that I was going to be able to fit up the hole, but luckily the baby was still asleep and I wasn't forced to deal with a bunch of crying.  
"I'm going up first," I said, "you can come up right after me." Laura nodded and our journey began.   
I fit through the tunnel, though barely, but I was still thankful for that small blessing.   
The first leg of the trip was one of the most difficult. The tunnel did indeed remain wide enough for us to pass through, but more than once I ran up against some obstruction blocking the path, and then we'd spend five to fifteen minutes trying to dislodge it so that we could continue. Christian, it would seem, was a very relaxed baby, and slept nearly the entire climb. That didn't make the trip much easier though. I had to constantly pay attention for fear of leaning up against the tunnel wrong and crushing the tiny life that was trusting me totally with its survival.  
There was little talking, both Laura and I were completely focused on the task at hand, and usually only the occasional grunt of frustration or sigh of exhaustion would tell me that I was even being followed. It was dark in there too, completely dark so that it was impossible to see where you were going, and only gravity itself told me that we were still traveling in a roughly vertical direction.  
I knocked my head for about the thousandth time and cursed softly under my breath. Laura yelled at me for, as she put it, 'poisoning Christian's young and vulnerable mind'. I really didn't know what she was talking about, but I agreed to not curse around the baby…or Laura after she yelled at me again for not being a gentleman. She sure could be pushy when it came to her baby. 'Its that whole maternal instinct thing,' I thought to myself while another voice continued to tell me that 'John' would have been a much better name for the baby.  
In any case we made good time considering, even so it still took us all of the morning and much of the afternoon to work our way through the warped tunnel. We came up to a point where we could actually crawl up using the Sector 7 side of the concrete wall to push our backs up against. After that the going was a bit easier, and it wasn't long before we were greeted by the jaded lights of Sector 6. We crawled out to find ourselves on top of the concrete barrier between Sector 7 and Sector 6. The top of it had been badly damaged during the collapse, but we could still rest there. Behind us rose the ruin that was Sector 7, before us was a vertical drop into Sector 6 that would have ended most certainly in death. Although much of the open sky over Sector 7 was still obscured by Sector 6's top plate and the wall of debris behind us, I could still tell that night would be setting in soon.  
"Here," I said, "take the baby." I took out Christian and put him back in his mother's carrier, then I flipped my backpack back around onto my back…the way it was supposed to be.  
"What now?" Laura asked.  
I looked out over the ledge, down into the world far below, and then looked up towards the heavens above.  
"We keep going up," I replied. I guess that she was too tired to argue because she made no move second guess my decision. Truth be told my arms were ready to fall off as it was, carrying the baby AND the supplies on my shoulders for most of the day had really done me in. However, I still had a long climb ahead of me before I could rest, and the determined look in Laura's eyes told me that she wasn't ready to give up any time soon. So, turning around, we started to climb the side of what had once been the top plate to Sector 7.  
The climb wasn't as bad as I had expected it to be. The wall was actually sloped ever so slightly inwards, so that I didn't need to put all my weight onto my shoulders all the time. As before, I led the way, but it wasn't until darkness had begun to fall that we finally reached the top, and walked out into a world of blue sky, warm sun, and complete and utter desolation. All about us Sector 7 lay, totally destroyed, a shadow, no…a ruin of its former self, and me rising up out of the darkness to break the sacred silence that saturated every brick, wire, and street. I felt like I was walking in a place that no man should be…a place where death was known better than any other.   
Where the reaper's scythe had reaped a greater harvest I do not know, only that the place once known as Sector 7 was now a graveyard…a jungle of stone and steel and blood.  
Laura gasped as she came crawling up behind me. There was nothing to say…nothing that could be said. Thousands has died here. I could imagine how it must have been…the mako lines exploding, roads crumbling, buildings falling through into the slums below, and the slums…I didn't even want to think about it…to see the world coming down about you, to know that there was no escape from the steel fiend rushing down upon you…there was nothing to say…  
"Oh…" Laura gasped, "I never thought it would be so bad…"  
And above us, sitting like an unholy idol amidst the monstrosity, the city of Midgar strewn about its feet like a pagan offering, was Shinra HQ.  
I knew it from the moment I laid eyes upon it, there could be only one base for Shinra, and this was it. I stood in awe and disgust at its magnificence. It stood like a mockery to the divine, an alter to sin, there was an aura of doom about it that made one shiver, it was debauchery, lawlessness, greed, and apathy incarnate…it was evil. This was no 'feeling' that told me it was evil, I knew not to trust simple feelings…I KNEW that this massive building rising above us was wicked to the core…the memories told me of its malevolence and cruelty. The greed, murder, hate, and violence all came back to me like a geyser from hell shooting forth its burning sulfur fumes, but worst of all, I could remember loving it all. I could remember the bars, the laughing, the drinking, the drugs, the fighting, the deals, the clandestine wink and knowing look, and I could remember enjoying every second of it. It was a 'me' that I hated so vehemently that I would have destroyed it any way possible if I could have, but it wasn't an option. To destroy 'him' I would have to destroy myself because deep down, I knew that 'he' was still there, and that I was 'him', and I still had work to do. Perhaps someday…but those were not thoughts for the moment, right then I needed to find shelter, and Laura was starting to look worried.  
"Are you ok?" she asked.  
"Yah," I replied, "I'm fine, let's just find someplace to spend the night."  
She agreed with a nod, but asked no questions, and for that I was grateful.  
I did not dare enter one of the nicer buildings, I had a good idea of what we might find, but we still needed to find someplace to sleep because it was getting very dark indeed. The lights of the city were eating away at the stars, the light pollution sucking up the starlight just like Midgar itself fed on its misshapen denizens.   
So, with no other options left to us, we continued walking in towards the center of Sector 7, away from the lights and noise…it was like walking through a cemetery. However, luck of some kind seemed to be with us because it was not long before we found what appeared to be an old abandoned warehouse. I checked the inside quickly, but found nothing, and called to Laura to come in. The warehouse had been built out of brick, and had survived the disaster relatively well except for a hole or two higher up in the walls. The inside was very dark despite the windows which lined the tin ceiling. They turned out to be so dirty and grimy that direct sunlight itself had a difficult time piercing the filth, but it was also getting cold, and I didn't want Laura or the baby to catch a chill. So, leaving the pair I went off by myself and found an old wooden crate. I dragged it back along with another one that I found and chopped them both up with Reaper for firewood.   
Unfortunately, the only fire-type spell that I had was Flare, which I thought might be just a little too powerful. I inquired as to whether Laura had brought any matches…she hadn't and neither had I, which left only one option. I told Laura to stand back, and I dragged most of the firewood back with me, leaving a small pile in the middle of the concrete floor to act as my target. I focused on my Contain Materia, and let off a single Flare spell that sent a large part of the wooden target flying in the form of charred splinters and sparks. However, a few pieces remained, and they were burning brightly. I dragged the firewood back over and built up the campfire with extra fuel. I let Laura use the backpack as a cushion, and then went in search of something for her to sleep on.   
Most of the boxes that I found were empty, but I kept on looking, using the dim glow of the fire as a guide through the gloomy night. Eventually my search was rewarded when I opened a box to find a bunch of electrical equipment. This would not have meant much, except that the equipment had been padded with hay, which still appeared to be fairly fresh. I continued my search and in the end was able to also scrounge up a box full of jackets. I dragged both boxes back to the campfire.   
Laura seemed very content, Christian was sleeping happily in her warm embrace.  
"He got a little fussy while you were gone," she said, "so I fed him and he went right back to sleep. He should be fine for the rest of the night now, he's really a very quite baby you know."  
I couldn't help getting the impression that she really didn't even know that I was there, that she was totally focused on her little baby boy. Her face was literally radiant with motherly pride, and I couldn't help but think that Christian was lucky to have such a loving mother.  
"I found a bed for you," I said, breaking her daydream.  
"Oh!" she looked up suddenly, "you really didn't have to…"  
I waved my hand for silence.  
"I found some reasonably fresh hay, and some jackets that you can use for a blanket." I thought she was going to try and protest again, so I caught her mid-syllable, "and you're going to use it too. Your baby's got the right idea, you need rest."  
"But what will you do?" she asked.  
"I'm going to stay up as watchman," I replied, I figured that someone needed to keep an eye out for danger in a place like that.  
"Now you listen," she said, "you're not going to stay up all night. At around twelve you're going to wake me up and then you're going to get some sleep…understand." It wasn't a question, it was a statement, and I could see that arguing was going to be useless, she seemed to have her heart set on helping out in some way.  
"Alright," I gave in, "I'll wake you up at midnight, but for now you need to get some sleep"  
I laid the hay on the floor in the rough shape of a bed, and after Laura lay down I covered her and Christian with the pilfered jackets. I then chopped up the two boxes the bedding supplies had come in, and added them to the wood pile. It was only after Laura had fallen asleep that I had realized that I had no way of telling time.  
"Whatever,' I thought to myself, 'just wake her up when you know you're about to fall asleep.'  
  
Out in that barren wasteland of destruction, through the gapping hole in the roof and wall, I was, for the first time, able to see the stars. There were so many of them strewn about the sky like thousands of tiny pearls, and with no electricity or lights in Sector 7 to dull them, the wonderful array of heavenly bodies shone unblemished. I could see so very little through my little window, and yet, they brought me comfort. Like when I rose from the first real sleep after my sickness and the mere sight of life…any life, had warmed my heart, now my spirit seemed lifted, or lightened of a heavy load. The fire crackled gently; casting its warm light on Laura and the sleeping child, so beautiful together it was as if they were in a completely different world from me.   
The void inside tainted my soul, made me feel dirty, I knew this, and yet, even after what Laura had been through she exuded a purity that I had not seen more than once or twice before in my entire life. The first person I had known whose innocence was so complete was my mother. Although I could remember very little of her, the memories of loving hugs and fresh baked cookies resurfaced for a moment, bringing a smile to my lips as affectionate memories were recalled of my days at home with my family. I could remember my mother's bright warm smile, so unselfishly loving; it had greeted me after so many afternoons spent adventuring in the forest as a child and after so many romps with friends…it was one of my strongest memories. Then there had been the accident…  
I could remember almost nothing of this event, only that my mother had grown so very sad. She didn't smile after that, and I remembered that many of my friends were gone…had disappeared in…in an explosion? All that I could remember was the noise, the horrible screeching of tearing metal that tore through my heart like the screaming of demons…afterwards…that was when I had decided to leave…  
Then there was Aeris, a woman who I felt sure I had once known so very well, and yet now there was nothing there. I could remember her coming to me when I was sick, and I could remember when she stopped me from dying, but past that that everything dimmed and sunk into the darkness of my mind as if it had never existed, but it should…I knew it should…I had known Aeris before insanity and madness had gripped me in the arms of the void…but it was gone now, and I did not know if I could ever recover it again.  
My mind was like a shattered mirror, I could see some things in its cracked and twisted surface, but everything was warped, ruined, deluded so that I could never make full sense of anything.   
Then, of course, there were the voices. They were not there all the time, and sometimes they seemed to react to me and sometimes…sometimes they seemed to have a mind all their own. And with the voices came the void, always it would follow, the feeling of the abyss that had swallowed me once and spit me out…it wanted me back…it hungered, this I knew in the very depths of my soul. Yet I could do nothing about it.   
So I continued to brood, adding some wood to the fire occasionally, and I would continue to think on these dark thoughts as the moon rose overhead, and midnight approached. 


	6. Retreat of Stars

Chapter 5  
  
The moon was rising overhead, filling the concrete chamber with its pale unearthly light. For hours now I had sat in utter silence, my mind spinning through a whirlpool of emptiness. I felt so…weak, as if there was nothing that I could do to change anything. Helpless, that was how I felt…totally and completely helpless to control myself or anything else. My life seemed pointless, no matter how many times I continued to tell myself that I had a purpose, that I needed to help Aeris, something inside me said otherwise. Always was I a failure…inadequate, ineffectual, a nobody drifting in a nightmare that I could do nothing to stop. I could not wake up from the dream, it only seemed to grip all the tighter.   
I knew that the voices were wrong, that they were lying to me, yet there was nothing that I could do to make them stop. They brought the void with them like a sickness, and taunted me with the half-recalled memories from a past that I hated and yet needed to remember.   
I gazed up at the stars, focusing my thoughts away from the loneliness inside. I looked at those magnificent heavenly bodies performing their time worn dance. I could remember the days back home before the machines had come to drill the earth and burn the forests. I could remember the nights spent laid out on the roof of the house, watching the stars and moon slip silently across the sky. They had always fascinated me, the cosmos had always held a certain lure for me, and it was more than once that I had caught myself as a lad wondering what lay beyond in the blackness of space. The idea had both thrilled and frightened me, to be all alone in the infinite gulf of darkness…to be as completely alone as it was possible to be…this had always disconcerted me greatly.  
Now, I thought that perhaps I understood what it might feel like to travel through space. To be so tiny, to feel so derisory that the idea that you could make a difference was laughable in its pitiful absurdity.  
The thoughts came back and forth, repeating themselves again and again and again in a never ending cycle that I just didn't seem able to break out of. This was certainly the worst attack that I'd had since the time outside my tunnel when I'd found my Materia, and who knows how it all might have ended that night had not Laura stirred at that moment.  
I heard a sigh from off to my side. I turned my head and saw that Laura was yawning and stretching. Carefully rising so as to not to wake up Christian, she looked around the room, and then at me.  
"I thought I told you to wake me up at around twelve?" she said. She must have misinterpreted the black rings under my eyes and overall haggard appearance as exhaustion, but it was much more than that. "Please Zack," she said, "get some sleep…I beg you. You look like a zombie."  
I nodded slowly, the spell of depression slowly wearing off, leaving me tired and confused…leaving me to ponder just how I'd let it get to me so easily. I'd promised myself that I would guard myself from the void, but it had penetrated my soul so easily, like it was meant to be there…I truly did not know what I was going to do, not if I couldn't even trust my own thoughts.  
"You stay there to take watch," I said, "I'll be fine right here."  
"But…" she began, but I wasn't going to argue.  
"No," I repeated, "you stay there and keep Christian warm…I'll be fine."  
Thankfully she didn't argue, and so I placed the backpack behind my head up against the pile of wood and lay down to get some sleep, but not before adding enough fuel to the fire to keep it going for the rest of the night.  
I fell asleep almost immediately, but my dreams were filled with strange shapes and sounds. It was as if some foreign or alien music were playing in the back of my mind. I felt as though something were watching me, and the dark figures flitting about in the recesses of my thoughts were a part of this greater 'whole'…whatever it was. I know that it sounds strange, but I knew that something was assessing me, testing me for flaws…and what made it even weirder was that the presence I felt was my own…  
  
I woke with a start, flying up to my feet so quickly that I woke up Christian, causing the baby to cry. I'd scared Laura as well, and she gave me that disapproving look as she cradled the infant and tried to quiet him down.  
"Good morning," she finally conceded after Christian settled down again.  
"Good morning," I replied. "Want some breakfast?" I asked.  
"Sure," she answered.  
With that I dug up some food from out of the pack and we enjoyed a small breakfast together as the sun began to shine into the warehouse.  
"So…" I began as I packed up the last few things into the backpack and strapped on Reaper, "everything go ok last night?"  
"Sure," Laura replied as she swung baby Christian around her shoulders in his carrier. "I heard some squeaks outside for a minute or so…but other than that there was nothing."  
"Hmmm…" I said, "probably rats."  
"Yeah," she replied, "probably."  
Laura looked convinced, but I wasn't. Who knew what kind of monsters might be wandering around scavenging on the remains of Sector 7 and its populace?  
In any case I decided not to tell Laura about what I'd been thinking since she probably already knew what I was worried about, and if she didn't, then there was no reason to burden her further.  
We left the camp as it was, and allowed the fire to burn itself out; one more burn would not add much to the plethora of scars already criss-crossing Sector 7.  
Sector 7 lay before us once more, a field of death and destruction…an obstacle in our path whose very presence seemed to daunt us with its overwhelming chaos.  
"You ready?" I asked, taking a look at the baby to make sure he was asleep.  
Laura nodded, and so we started to hike. I had seen a long line of cables hanging down from the far upper plate. Laura said that they were probably electrical cables running from Sector 8's industrial district into Sector 7. When the plate had fallen the cables had been dragged down with it, but had remained connected to the top plate. We were in sore need of a plan to get out of Sector 7, and the cables were our best bet, the only problem, they were on the other side of Sector 7.  
The walk was different than it had been yesterday. When we first laid eyes on Sector 7 it had looked like Hades rising out of the earth to greet us. In the light however, it was like walking through a battlefield. I don't know if Laura would have understood, but I could remember the carnage that came after a long fight. Junon had been very nearly wiped out when the Wutaians first attacked. It had only been through the dedicated defense of a few that the city had not fallen. Then there were all the funds channeled into rebuilding, and there had been the cannon…but things were once again getting fuzzy. It was starting to annoy me how my mind tantalized me with my own memories, how it held out the key to my past just long enough for me to reach for it, just before it recoiled and left me in shadow once again.  
We were silent, as we most always were, but I did not feel lonely with Laura walking beside me. In fact, I was experiencing some pretty strong paternal instincts toward her and the child…especially the child. Something about his pure unfettered innocence interested me, like the darkness is interested in what it might be like to exist in the light.  
In any case we were making good time, despite huge cracks running through the streets and buildings, and the craters where the mako pipelines exploded. However, I just couldn't seem to shake the feeling that we were being watched.   
It was about noon when I heard the sound. We had decided not to stop for lunch because we wanted to get out of that place soon, preferably before dark, and lunch would only slow us down.  
It was a squeak, little more than that, but I saw the hairs rise on the back of Laura's head.   
"That the sound from last night?" I asked.  
She only nodded.  
There were more squeaks, but I didn't move my head and I motioned to Laura to do the same. We kept on walking, faster at first, until finally we were at a dead run, with the squeaking still keeping pace. Finally I had to look. I turned around to not one, not two, not even three or four but hundreds of the disgusting creatures from the Sector 6 construction site following us. Laura looked too and gasped.  
"Whole Eaters," she said, "I've never seen so many before."  
"And I bet they think we're dinner," I said as I launched a Tornado into the center of their beastly horde. I grabbed Laura by the arm and started running.  
"We need to get out of here!" I shouted as I could hear the squeaking turn to screeching behind us…it would appear that I'd gotten the little monsters mad.  
She did not acknowledge the statement…it was kind of obvious, but I figured that someone had to say it.   
We raced down deserted avenues and forgotten roads with the enemy never far behind. In between the puffs for breath I could sometimes catch a peek at the Whole Eaters as they moved. They did not run or walk, but rather 'jumped' from place to place. They could use the sharp claws on the ends of their insect-like legs to anchor themselves into a floor, wall, or even, I guessed, a ceiling. Then they'd use that spot as a launching platform. It sounds like a complicated process, and it was, but they were able to perform it with the utmost skill. We ran through a courtyard, and turned to the side, and we were suddenly very trapped in a very dead end alleyway (pun not intended).  
Tall brick buildings rose up on either side, trapping the three of us like rats in a ravine, and then the Whole Eaters came.  
Luckily, they were a bit more subdued…or at least more cautious. They lurked around the entrance to the alley. At first I thought that they were simply scared to enter, but I could hear distant screeching and I realized that they were calling reinforcements!   
Laura had unsheathed Jimmy's dagger, and was griping the handle so tight her knuckles were turning white.  
Meanwhile I was looking around desperately for some way out when I saw a fire escape on the side of the building to our right. I almost expected a pillar of light to shine down on it while the heavenly hosts sang for joy, but the only sound that I could hear-and it was getting closer- was the screaming calls of the Whole Eaters.  
"Come on!" I practically shouted at Laura, "I think I have a way out!"  
I pulled her over to the fire escape and dragged over a dumpster that we could use as a platform to reach the rusting iron ladder above.  
The Whole Eaters continued to mass outside the alley, but I sent off a Freeze spell that I hoped would make them think twice about coming in after us.  
"You go first," I said.  
"But…" started Laura before I stopped her.  
"Think of the baby," I said, that made her close her mouth.  
"If I don't get a chance to follow, you need to keep running for the cables, just get yourself out of this place ok?"  
She looked at my serious expression and decided not to argue, but was still only able to nod.  
"Now hurry up and get going," I said as I helped her up on to the dumpster.  
By now my heart was racing, the Whole Eaters were creeping down the alleyway, their bodies tensing for the strike, but I was ready for them.  
Finally one of them lashed out, but not at me, it went straight for Laura who was still climbing up the fire escape as fast as she could. I summoned a Gravity 2 spell, just enough to hurt it bad and send it flying without wasting my energy, but I was barely able to avoid being taken down by no less than seven leaping screeching Whole Eaters.   
They sailed past me, and as they turned around to strike again I jumped up onto the dumpster and grappled my way up the fire escape ladder. Two of the little monsters followed, but I unslung Reaper and made mincemeat out of the one who came to close. The other one jumped up onto the wall next to me while the army behind me began to surge around the base of the building, finally realizing that its prey was escaping. I continued climbing as fast as I could, but with Laura already over the top the Whole Eaters could concentrate more energy on me. The one up on the wall jumped straight at me. The angle was awkward and I couldn't properly swing my sword, so I lifted up my arm in front of me, but when the Whole Eater hit it tried to grab hold of the appendage, the strong leather jacket probably the only thing that kept it from tearing the flesh of the bones of my arm. I immediately swung my arm and sent the little monster flying back down to a squishy meeting with the concrete ground below.  
By now there were more than a dozen of the monsters all over the wall and fire escape; they'd been using the last Whole Eater as a decoy so that they could surround me! They were certainly intelligent little buggers I had to admit, even if they do look like deformed worms on steroids.  
I sent off a Freeze spell, permanently anchoring several Whole Eaters to the brick wall. Two jumped at me, but one was faster than the other so I was able to skewer it on Reaper before twisting around with the Whole Eater still impaled by my blade to cut the head of the second attacker in two, sending both bodies toppling back down to the ground.  
Vile green blood was splattered all over the wall and rusted fire escape by now, but instead of making the other monsters wary, it only seemed to drive them into more of a frenzy. Despite this I was still able to continue climbing as I fought off individual attackers, but most of the Whole Eaters had by now taken an interest in me, and the top of the building seemed such a long way off.  
I was almost at the top when one of the Whole Eaters caught me by surprise and landed right on my shoulder, sinking its many foul teeth deep into my flesh. I called out in pain, and slammed my shoulder up against the wall, effectively cracking the monster's skull with a sickening, yet satisfying, crunch.  
I grabbed at my shoulder, the sudden pain nearly blinding me, but the dizziness quickly passed and I remembered what was after me.  
With a much clearer head I tried to continue, but the Whole Eaters could see that I was injured, and they weren't about to let me escape. Two more jumped at me, and although I was able to avoid the first one, the second monster hit me straight on in the chest, knocking me down onto the iron grated floor of the fire escape. It let out a screech of victory before I let loose a Flare directly into its underbelly, launching the pieces of the Whole Eater into the stratosphere, and frying several of its friends in the process.   
I then activated my Barrier Materia and cast a Barrier around me before using my Restore Materia to heal my shoulder.  
However, it was one move too late because now the Whole Eaters were mad, and they had their little green hearts set on tearing me limb from limb. They charged as one force at me, slamming into my Barrier and slashing at me with those razor sharp claws.  
I could no longer continue up the fire escape, the beasts were everywhere and it was all I could do to keep them at bay. Already the disgusting bodies were piling up around me like garbage at a dump, but the monsters kept on coming.  
I realized that if I ever wanted to get out of there alive I would have to try and keep going, that reaching the top of the building was my only hope for survival. It was there that the Whole Eaters would loose the advantage of being able to attack from all directions at once, it was there where I could hope to make a stand while Laura escaped.  
It was funny how my mind seemed to work now. I could remember the part of my past where I had been a man I hated, and I knew that I would never have given my life for anyone…I was far too selfish. Yet, now the idea of sacrifice came to me so easily…like it was supposed to be there as much as the selfishness and greed.  
I ran up the steps to the next level of the fire escape, only one more left to go…  
It was not to be it would seem because even as my foot touched the balcony right below the top I felt something hit me in the back. I knew it was a Whole Eater, but there wasn't anything I could do to shake it. I slammed my back into the wall, killing it, but another jumped onto my shoulder, and another was wrapping itself around my legs, hissing between its razor sharp fangs. Then my world went black as a snake-like body obstructed my vision. I could feel them biting me, trying to work their way through the leather, but when I could see again I was lying on the grate iron fire escape, unable to move for the bodies piled on top of me, holding me down.  
I knew I was bleeding, I knew that it wouldn't be long before I blacked out, but I no longer had the strength to use yet another powerful spell. I could feel myself dying slowly, but then I saw Laura stick her head out over the side of the building. 'No!' I screamed to myself, 'get out of here!' I wanted to yell at her, but my throat was dry, and I couldn't get it to make a sound beyond that of a rasping gasp. I could see that she still had Jimmy's dagger clutched in her fist, but there was something else too…a small yellow orb which she set in a bronze band around her arm. She closed her eyes and concentrated, and it was then that the Whole Eaters took notice of her. Screeching and howling they left my mangled body and rushed up at her…just as she swept her dagger from left to right, the yellow orb glowing slightly as its attack was unleashed.  
I felt the air about me sing as the Whole Eaters started screaming in pain. The air about me was rent with sparks and the Whole Eaters who survived jumped down the wall back into the alley and courtyard to regroup.  
Laura ran down the flight of stairs and gasped as she saw my body…although I did not know how bad it was, I could see from the look on her face that it was pretty bad.  
Somehow I was able to point to the Restore Materia on my sword, and she understood immediately. She healed me as best she could, and I helped some as well, but once I was able to walk we decided we should run and ask questions later because it sounded like more Whole Eaters had just arrived.  
Luckily we were in what had once been the industrial district of Sector 7 which meant that all the buildings were fairly close together, making movement between them all the easier. Laura led the way, jumping from rooftop to rooftop while I guarded the rear.  
The Whole Eaters were finally scared, and did not dare show themselves in the open, but I could still hear skittering and screeching following us from the darkened labyrinth of streets and alleyways below.  
Baby Christian had woken up when we'd been forced to climb up the fire escape, but he had not cried once during our entire retreat. I was beginning to develop respect for that small child.  
"What was that attack?" I shouted up to Laura between breaths.  
"It was a Slash-All Materia," she replied, "it's a family heirloom, but my mom told me to take it and keep it secret."  
"Well," I called back, "thanks for saving me anyway."  
She didn't answer, but I thought that she nodded her head. 'She's a strange one alright,' I decided. Sometimes it seemed like she was more than willing to volunteer information, and other times I couldn't get her to say so much as 'yes' or 'no'…or 'you're welcome'. It was as if Laura wanted to trust me, but couldn't…or wouldn't…let herself.  
But that didn't matter because I had bigger problems on my hands at the time.  
The cables were looming overhead. I had not expected to reach them until after dark, but I suppose a person can make good time when being chased by a horde of giant-mouthed monsters.  
While I felt for the first time that we might actually make it out, I could still hear our pursuers chasing us, and I knew that sooner or later we'd have to come down to reach the cables. The time came sooner than I expected.   
We reached the outer edge of Sector 7, where the destruction was worse than it had been near the center. The buildings were no longer safe to run on, and besides, the industrial district was giving way to endless rows of machinery designed to regulate the entire upper plate. These systems were in ruins now, but at one time they would have controlled the input and output of everything from power and water to food supplies and consumer goods.  
We came to the very last building, and were forced to crawl down through a hole in the roof. The building had once been an apartment of some kind…a very poor apartment. It had probably served as home to the engineers who kept tabs on the Sector 7 life support systems.  
"Do you have anymore energy to use that Slash-All?" I asked Laura as we raced down the rickety stairs.  
She shook her head to imply the negative, but this time it had nothing to do with her willingness to talk…I could see that she was completely exhausted from our escape. This posed a problem because I did not have enough energy to cast anymore spells except maybe a couple low level Cures…and I thought that those might come in handy later. I knew that the Whole Eaters would be waiting for us at the bottom of the stairs, but without any magic this confrontation was gonna be tricky.  
We stopped in front of the front door. It was made of wood and, luckily, was still shut. I could hear the sounds of the monsters outside, they'd all gathered in front of the door to try and ambush us. This gave me an idea.   
Taking Reaper in one hand, I pulled out one of my grenades with the other.  
I looked at Laura, who had a worried look on her face, "On the count of three hunker down and then follow me."  
"Ok," she said.  
'Wow,' I thought, 'I guess there's always a first.'  
"One," I pulled the pin out of the grenade, "Two," I kicked the door open with my foot, "Three!" I sent the little green egg of death flying into the middle of the enemy formation…if you could call an incoherent mess of screaming monsters a formation.  
After that things turned into one big blur smeared by the vomit-like blood of the Whole Eaters, and broken by the sounds of howling and explosions. I somehow managed to cut my way through the monsters with Laura right behind. Christian had finally had enough and was bawling his eyes out. I could tell that Laura wanted to take him out of his carrier and comfort him, but we weren't out of danger's way yet. The disorganized mass of green flesh was regrouping for the final strike and would have probably taken us down right there had not my grenade touched off a mako battery.   
Power might not have flowed into Sector 7 for some time, but there batteries in every Sector, in both the top plate and the lower slums so that incase there was a major breakdown a Sector could continue to power itself. These batteries were constantly kept at full power, and with no one drawing on mako energy in Sector 7, they'd remained that way. The explosion my grenade caused damaged one of these massive batteries which were built to withstand just about anything, but had been weakened by the collapse. A breach had occurred, and the tremendous force of all that mako power washed out all at once, setting off a massive explosion that only barely missed both me and Laura. It did, however, fling us several yards through the air. I hit the ground hard and Laura landed right on top of me, luckily face down so that Christian wasn't hurt.  
"Oh, I'm so sorry…" she lamented as she scrambled to her feet.  
"Forget it," I said, a little envious that she'd gotten a padded landing. "We need to get out of here," I said as I continued to run towards the cables that were oh so close.   
If the Whole Eaters had been angry before, they were in a berzerker rage now. They no longer screeched or howled, but sent out one single ear drum popping scream that seemed to literally travel through the air like a physical force.  
Laura was barely able to keep going anymore, and she was falling behind.  
"Come on!" I yelled as I grabbed her by the arm to keep her from falling down. I pushed her on out in front of me so that I could once again guard our flank. One of the Whole Eaters went sailing past my head, but as we ran past it I swung Reaper and I made sure it wouldn't attack again. By that time my sword was dripping in the green blood of Whole Eaters. We turned another corner, around the hulk of an abandoned tower of machinery, and then we were there.  
The size of the cables was deceiving at a distance. Although they had seemed to be of decent size, up close I realized that they were truly enormous. The main line was a huge aluminum pipe as thick as a train car was wide, with indentations embossed around it like rings all the way up it length, turning it into a gigantic ladder. However, this main line stopped several hundred feet before it hit the ground, and had many smaller wires and cables running out of into the cracked and broken ground of Sector 7's upper plate.  
"Go," I said, "start climbing, I'll follow."  
Laura grabbed hold of one of the wires that was very much like a rope in circumference, and she started to climb. This time I didn't wait around but started climbing up right after her as fast as I could.   
I had hoped that the Whole Eaters would give up once we were out of jumping reach, but I was far from correct. They used the same technique that they used to walk/run to 'climb' up the cables after us. I thought that we might be able to outrun them, but both Laura and I were exhausted, and the Whole Eaters seemed to be tireless in their chase.   
One of them managed to jump up ahead of me, but lost its grip and fell. It was the last straw…something had to be done before the little monsters caught up with us.   
It was then that I felt like I'd been struck with genius…or perhaps it was a delusion caused by extreme fatigue, but either way I was going to try my plan whether I thought it'd work or not.  
I pulled out another grenade, pulled the pin, and threw it as hard as I could straight at the nearest Whole Eater just as it jumped at me. The grenade hit it right in the mouth and sent it reeling back down towards the ground, screeching all the way. The explosion vaporized the Whole Eater and severed all the cables beneath me, sending the whole monstrous mass of flesh and steel to smash into the plate beneath us with a deafening crash and a billow of smoke.  
I remained where I was, watching curiously to see the products of my handiwork. The few Whole Eaters that had survived were no longer screaming…but whimpering, a sound that made me smile with satisfaction. I stared intently as the little monsters hopped, or in many cases crawled, away.   
I was so happy I actually laughed for a second. It was a strange thing this laughing…it was something I had not done in a long time. I looked up and could see that Laura was not only safe, but she was still climbing. So, with a new hope lifting my spirits, I put my back into the work at hand and started to follow her up towards the world of the living above. 


	7. A Light is Lost

Chapter 6  
  
My lungs burning, my body aching, my head throbbing, I finally pulled myself over the edge onto the upper plate of Sector 8. Before I did anything I lay down on the cool concrete and let my muscles relax for the first time since noon.  
  
It was hard to believe that a whole day had passed, and that now the sun was once more sinking.   
  
Laura was beside me, cradling Christian and crying softly into his little baby tummy even though the laid-back infant had already calmed down.  
  
We'd spent the best part of two hours hanging from metal cables, climbing for what had seemed an impossibly long time, until Laura had given out a shout of joy and had disappeared over the top of Sector 8's top plate.  
  
I sat up slowly, and cleared my throat, "we should find someplace to spend the night."  
  
"Alright," she said, and slipped Christian back into his baby carrier.  
  
Both of us had a little trouble standing up because although our minds were telling us we should find an inn, our muscles screamed at us to lay down where we were and rest.  
  
We had to climb over several grated fences and lines of 'Caution' tap, but soon we were walking through the highways and byways of Sector 8, having seen no sign of any sort of police.   
  
No one tried to stop us and no one questioned us, so we just kept on walking, looking for someplace to stay.  
  
Sector 8 appeared to be one giant factory, one huge machine stacked on another, with entire neighborhoods built into the cracks.  
  
I asked Laura about it and she agreed. She said that Sector 8 was, in a way, the heart of Midgar. Shinra HQ might be the brain, but Sector 8 produced the goods, refined the mako, and routed all the supplies that kept Midgar alive. Its upper plate had the lowest population of any of the other top plates, but its lower slum area was filled almost to capacity. This was because the poor flocked to Sector 8 to avoid the tax placed on all consumer goods that were transported via rail or pipe. All that the poor in Sector 8 had to do was use a plate-lev, one of the few things that were still free in Midgar, to take them up top. Shinra had allowed this mass exodus only because it made keeping watch over the masses that much easier, apparently Shinra was constantly worried about an uprising of some kind.  
  
"And one more thing," Laura said while I continued to listen intently. "Sector 8's upper plate might not have much of a population, but it's famous for its vicious gangs…so we should be careful around here."  
  
I had to agree with Laura; the whole area looked like it would be a haven for criminals of all kinds. There were scores of empty pipes and abandoned conduits, thousands of forgotten crannies and tunnels, and all of them just waiting for an occupant who had no wish of being found by any sort of authority. We made our way down an asphalt street (one of the few in Sector 8) until we finally entered one of the small 'villages' which had literally been built up in the steel canyon formed by two high towers of machines.  
  
"These places are called 'Nests'," said Laura, "they're where the engineers who keep watch over the machines of Sector 8 live with their families. We should be able to find a boarding house or inn of some sort here with all the traveling those engineers do." I didn't question her and we kept on walking down the narrow road.  
  
Sure enough, we found a hotel almost instantly, proclaiming its services with a small metal-embossed sign hanging out front. All in all the whole place was so much more toned down from what I had known in Wall Market, that I almost found myself getting bored by all the dullness.  
  
Both Laura and I walked in to find an old woman sitting at the counter. Her hair was a metallic gray, and blended in perfectly with her surroundings. Her eyes were a dark brown, and her face covered thickly with wrinkles.   
  
Yet, despite her austere appearance, she smiled warmly when we entered.   
  
"Hello," she said, "and what can I do for you young people?"  
  
"We're here for a room," said Laura.   
  
"Of course," the old woman said, "one or two?"  
  
"One," replied Laura.  
  
The old woman gave us a weird look, especially me, but said, "Ok, that'll be 25 gil."  
  
"Fine," I said and gave her the money.   
  
"You're strangers around here aren't you?" asked the old woman.  
  
There was nothing devious about the old clerk, so I didn't see why we should lie.  
  
"That's right," I said, "We've come from Sector 6."  
  
"Oh my!" gasped the woman, "such a long trip, and with a baby as well…and to think that I didn't even know that the train tracks had been reopened between Sectors 5 and 6 and the rest of Midgar."  
  
Laura nodded, "well, it took more than a little bit of work to get here." She sounded nervous and gave me the 'shut up before you get us into trouble' look.  
  
"Well," said the old woman taking the room key from off a rack behind her head, "I've heard of major food shortages in those two Sectors, and I just feel so bad knowing how much we have when others have so little."  
  
"Thank you," said Laura as she reached for the key.  
  
"You should count yourself lucky girl," said the old woman, "having a loving husband who'll guard you during such a long journey…I've heard that those train muggers are getting more violent and brash by the day."  
  
I was about to tell the old woman that she was mistaken, but Laura cut me off.  
  
"Yes, thank you," she said, "Do you know of anyplace where we could eat?"  
  
"Sure," said the old woman, "Yeo's Diner is just down the street. And," she said, pointing to my jacket, "Mary owns a tailor shop up on level 2's Piston Walk."  
  
Although my shirt and pants had survived our escape from Sector 7 quite well, my jacket had taken the brunt of the Whole Eater's attack. Only the heavy black leather which was the chief material used in its construction had held it together. I could have just thrown it away, but I was beginning to like my new clothes, and figured that it wouldn't hurt to see if I could get the jacket patched up.  
  
"Thank you," I said, "we should be back later this evening."  
  
The old woman nodded, and Laura and I walked back out onto the street.  
  
"We should go get something to eat," I said, "we can worry about the tailor in the morning."  
  
Yeo's Diner was not hard to find, even with its conservative advertisements. It was one of the larger buildings in town, but was one of the few with any sort of sign in front of it. The walls were made out of metal…kind of like everything else in Sector 8, but it had a large one way window in front which allowed the customers inside to look out, but kept street walkers from looking in.  
  
The door jingled as we walked in, and almost immediately a Wutaian man approached Laura and me with a big smile on his face.  
  
"Welcome," he said with a slight accent, "welcome to my restaurant. Please be seated and my daughter will serve you." The man who I guessed to be Yeo led the way to a booth in front of the window.  
  
"Please," he said as he bowed, "my daughter will now serve you, but may I suggest the Sweet and Sour Shrimp…we just got in a fresh catch this morning and my wife is very good at cooking it."  
  
I nodded in response and he flashed another huge smile before walking off into the kitchen.  
  
Almost immediately a small, teenage, Wutaian girl appeared, seemingly out of midair, and handed both Laura and me a menu…which Christian, whose carrier had been placed in the seat next to Laura, reached for with curious eyes.   
  
Yeo's daughter smiled at the baby, "would you like a booster seat for your baby?"  
  
"No thank you," replied Laura, "He'll be fine."  
  
"Such a cute baby…" said the girl.  
  
"Thank you," Laura thanked the girl before turning to look at the menu.  
  
This action seemed to break the young waitress out of her daydream because she slipped back into her hostess dialogue.  
  
"My name is Zaina," she said, "and if there is anything you need simply call me and I will come."  
  
She paused for a moment, "is there anything I can get you to drink? Perhaps," she said, "a beer for you sir?"  
  
"No thank you," I replied, "just ice water for me, and I think I'll have the Sweet and Sour Shrimp your father suggested." Zaina nodded and smiled, then turned to look at Laura.   
  
"The same for you miss?" she asked.   
  
"Sorry," said Laura, "the water sounds fine, but I'm allergic to sea food. I think I'll have the Sesame Chicken with the noodles."  
  
Zaina nodded again, wrote both of our orders down, took both of our menus, bowed, and walked back into the kitchen. Finally I was free to take in my surroundings.   
  
It turned out that we were not the only ones in the restaurant after all. What with Yeo's zealous greeting and the almost magical appearance of our waitress, I had not noticed anyone else. There was, in fact, a couple sitting near the back eating what looked like dessert, and an old fat man with a beard down to his waist sitting in a booth near the register working his way through a noodle platter. None of these people seemed to pay much attention to Laura and me, so I returned the favor by focusing my attention back towards the company at hand.  
  
"So," I asked, "where are you going to go from here?"  
  
Laura had been tending to Christian, but the question forced her to straighten up and look at me.  
  
"I have family in Sector 3," she said, "so I'll probably head there. By the way," she continued, "why were you so desperate to get out of Sector 6 anyway?"  
  
I hesitated for a moment, but figured that Laura had a right to know.  
  
"I'm going to Shinra HQ," I replied. Her eyes widened for a moment, but she did not respond, so we sat there in silence until the food came out.  
  
Both of us took our time eating, chewing slowly and trying to look at anything but each other.  
  
"So…" I finally dropped the question, "why'd you let the woman think we were married?"  
  
Laura finished the bite in her mouth and sighed, "because I wouldn't have felt safe sleeping in a separate room, and I didn't want anyone talking about us…you know…thinking that I was some sort of…" The words choked in her mouth.  
  
"I understand," I said quickly, "but you know…I could still take advantage of you…doesn't that worry you?"  
  
"Sure," said Laura as she dried her eyes, "but you've had ample opportunity before this, you even saved my life." The 'back in Sector 7' was implied, we both knew what she was talking about. Our meal fell back into silence once more.   
  
The Shrimp was quite good, and I told Zaina when she came to refill our glasses.  
  
"Thank you," she replied, bowing low, "I shall tell my mother, I am sure she will be pleased."  
  
It did not take long before both my plate and Laura's were empty. Once again Zaina appeared out of nowhere to clean our places and give us the bill. It was pretty cheap considering, so I left a large tip and walked up to the register where Yeo was waiting. I paid my bill while Laura slipped on the baby carrier. Yeo smiled and bowed again, thanking us for our patronage. I thanked him for his generosity, and, with formalities taken care of, walked out of the restaurant with Laura by my side.  
  
It was late now, and the shadows were deep, the areas around a few street lamps the only territory they'd been denied.  
  
The walk back to the inn was one made in darkness, and I was on constant alert…Laura's warning about the gangs still echoing through my mind.  
  
However, nothing exciting happened except for the cat that accidentally jumped out into our path, and I think it was more scared of us than we were of it.  
  
The inn was dark, but the old woman was still at the counter.  
  
"I'm glad to see you back," she said, "I was just about to lock up."  
  
We thanked the old woman for waiting for us, and then, true to her word, she locked the front door and walked off down the hall.  
  
The key Laura had been given indicated that our room was on the first floor, which was nice considering what had happened the last time I'd slept on the second floor of an inn.  
  
We walked upstairs and found our room, #7. The key turned in the lock and revealed a room with a single bed and a couch. A table with two chairs had been set up in the corner, and a short dresser placed up against the wall, a T.V. placed on top. There was also a door leading to a bathroom.  
  
Neither one of us wanted to watch any television; we didn't have any clothes to put in the dresser and neither of us needed to use the bathroom…but Christian did, and he made sure that we knew.  
  
"I think I need to change his diaper," said Laura as she indicated Christian and the putrid smell that was wafting through the air.  
  
"Sure," I replied, "I'm pretty beat so I'm gonna go to sleep." I locked the door and continued on as Laura walked into the bathroom. "I'm going to sleep on the couch so you and Christian can have the bed," I said. I did not hear any direct reply, so I figured that she didn't want to argue. I put the backpack down by the side of the bed, took off my jacket and sword, and then laid down. I put my jacket on top like a blanket, and kept Reaper grasped in both hands in case of an emergency…I'd learned from experience that one can't trust to luck when sleeping in a place like that. I was out cold before Laura ever left the bathroom.  
  
I woke up to the light of the morning sun shining through the single window to our room. I had spent the whole night in a world of my own…a world without dreams.   
  
Laura was still asleep in the bed with Christian curled up by her side. I had a kink in my neck from sleeping on the couch all night, but other than that I felt wonderfully refreshed. I got up with a sigh as my sore muscles began to move once again. My jacket was slipped back on and my sword strapped onto my back. I didn't want to wake Laura, but I also needed to see if I could find that tailor the innkeeper spoke of.  
  
Luckily I found an old magazine someone had left in on the floor, and there was a pen on top of the dresser next to the TV. So, ripping out one of the pages with a blank side I told Laura where I was and that she shouldn't worry and that she should stay in the hotel room. I left this note on top of the backpack, which I set on the couch. Then, trying to be as quite as possible, I walked out of the room and down the stairs.  
  
The old woman was standing behind the counter as if she'd never left.  
  
"Good morning," she said, "is there anything I can do for you?"  
  
"Yah," I said, "I was going to get my jacket repaired before moving on, and I believe you said something about a tailor last night?"  
  
"Yes," she replied, "Mary owns her own store…that'll be up on level 2's Piston Walk."  
  
"Ok," I said, "how do I get there?"  
  
"You go down past Yeo's place, take a right up the stairs, turn at the next right, walk down that path till you reach a side road to your left, that'll be Piston Walk. You shouldn't have any trouble finding Mary's shop, it has a sign."  
  
"Alright," I replied, "thank you for the directions."  
  
"You're welcome," she said.  
  
A few minutes later I found myself standing in front of 'Mary's Shoppe'. I found the place interesting in many ways: first, the fancy wording of its name, second, the use of colored paint in the sign, third, the fact that there was a cheerful welcome mat on the doorstep.  
  
Shrugging my shoulders I figured I might as well see what was inside. What I found amazed me…  
  
There were colors everywhere. Fabrics and pictures and paper models hanging from the ceiling…all these things and more decorated the shop.  
  
I just stood there, absorbing the cheerfulness, when a woman who I took to be Mary swept into the room on a wave of happy sing song music coming from the back of the store.  
  
"Hello sir," she said, not letting my dark appearance hamper her style. "Is there anything I can do for you?"  
  
"I was wondering if you could fix my jacket," I said, unstrapping Reaper from my back before pulling off my torn jacket. Mary looked a little apprehensive about the sword, but she still approached me and motioned for me to hand her the leather jacket. She looked at it, and hummed out of tune with the music.  
  
"I think that I can at least sew it back together again," she said, "but its pretty badly damaged…it'll never look pretty again."  
  
"That's fine," I said, "as long as it works."  
  
Mary frowned, "but perhaps you would something more…happy?"  
  
"No," I replied, looking around the room once more and shuddering at the thought of what this woman might try to dress me up in given the chance. "No…" I said again, "I've gotten attached to that jacket."  
  
She nodded in a way that said she was willing to do the work, but didn't agree with my decision.  
  
"Alright sir," she said, "I'll take this into the back room and see what I can do…but remember that I make no promises."  
  
"Ok," I said, "how long will it take?'  
  
"Probably around 20 minutes or so," was the reply, "you can wait in here or outside."  
  
I decided that, despite the troubling atmosphere, I'd stay inside the shop. I found a bench surrounded by fake potted plants, and tried to relax. But the woman had left the door to the back room open, and she'd turned up the music volume. The song was driving me crazy, and what's more…she was singing. Mary might have been cheerful, she might have been optimistic, she might be the kind of person to sacrifice anything of hers to help someone else, but there was one thing Mary was not…and that was a singer.  
  
I finally reached the point where I couldn't stand it anymore; I had to get some fresh air. I walked outside and breathed deeply as the music faded away behind the shop's front door.  
  
Piston Walk actually cut right through one of the gigantic machines common to Sector 8.  
  
Looking up through this 'gorge', I could see Shinra HQ rising ominously over all. It was more my mother than the woman who raised me…I had been produced from that building's womb. More than just a building, Shinra was a virus…it gave me life.  
  
I shook my head as my brow furrowed. 'More of a mother than the woman who raised me? how could I say something like that?' I thought to myself. I truly did not know where the thought came from…once again it felt like it was already there and that I had done nothing but remember…but remember what? I had no idea  
  
I pondered these things, but to no avail. Once again it was a downward battle with a mind that would rather hold a convention with itself than help out its owner.  
  
…Someone was calling me…  
  
"Sir," I heard the voice speak again.  
  
"Sir?"  
  
I turned around.  
  
Mary was standing outside the shop door, calling to me.  
  
"I'm finished if you want to come back in," she said, the warm smile returning to her face.  
  
I followed her back into the shop, and further back into her workroom. Mary picked up my jacket and laid it out on the table set up in the center of the room. She'd been forced to use heavy thread to hold the leather together, and the stitches were painfully obvious, as if the coat had been pieced together using ragged strips of material. The thread was dark, but not totally black, which only made it stand out even more. I'm not sure whether Mary simply did not have the right kind of thread in the right color (I would not have doubted it…I got the idea that Mary did not stock much in the way of black), or if she had simply been unable to bring herself to use that dreaded shade of darkness. In any case I thought she did a good job, in fact I thought she did an excellent job. I swung the black leather trenchcoat around my shoulders and strapped on Reaper. I looked at myself in a full length mirror Mary kept in the workroom. I had to say that I almost scared myself…  
  
My skin was deathly pale while my face was still gaunt and looked like it had been chiseled from stone. Past my neck the shadows began. Now I not only wore all black, but the long stitches roaming over my jacket gave it a sinister feel. All in all I liked the look…but I don't think Mary did.  
  
"It's a little…."  
  
"Dark," I finished the sentence for her; it seemed to be the normal reaction.  
  
I looked back in the mirror, and focused on my eyes. They still glowed with an uncanny blue light. Still, people did not seem to notice my eyes…or perhaps they did not want to notice for some reason or another. Maybe it was my history with SOLDIER? I wasn't even sure about what my history with SOLDIER had been, but maybe people were just naturally careful around those who might be employed by Shinra.  
  
"It's perfect," I told Mary. She smiled uncertainly, as if unsure as to whether I'd given her a compliment or not.  
  
"Umm, alright," she said, "if you like it."  
  
"I do," I said, "what do I owe you?"  
  
"It's on the house," she replied, "I never charge for repairs."  
  
"Here," I said digging out 150 gil and tossing it onto the table, "consider it a gift."  
  
I turned my back and walked out before she could reply.  
  
Before I even got back to the inn I could feel that something was wrong. There was an aura of peril in the air, and everything seemed a lot quieter.  
  
I don't know why, but I started to run…as fast as I could. My chest was heaving, my still sore muscles straining underneath my pale skin. The massive machines surrounded me like a pack of malevolent demons, the whirs and crashes of their mechanical processes mocking laughter to my ears.  
  
And then…then the inn was there…  
  
I slowed my pace and coughed hard, but continued walking towards the building. I relaxed as I saw that the door was still safely closed. I actually laughed out loud at my silliness. What I had been worried about I did not know, but my joy was cut short when I realized that the sensation of dread was still there…  
  
The door was closed…when had it been closed? The innkeeper had been opening up when I left and I thought that she left the front door open all day…so why was it closed now?  
  
I approached the door slowly, noticing that the street was totally silent and every window shuttered. Something had happened while I'd been away; I could feel it in the marrow of my bones.  
  
Reaper came out of its sheath, ready to defend its master. I kicked open the door and the last thing I saw was the business end of a baseball bat.  
  
My eyes fluttered open, but the dimness of the room made my vision hazy. Was I even in a room? I couldn't be sure…  
  
I couldn't move, for some reason my arms and legs wouldn't obey me, and for a single terror filled second I thought that my back had somehow been broken and that I was now a quadriplegic. However, my fingers and toes were still wiggling and I still had feeling in my limbs…so just what was going on? Then the pain hit me. It was a hard searing pain, the kind that comes after being knocked in the head real hard. It waits around till it's sure you're good and conscious, and then blows away your nerve endings in an explosion of colored lights that threaten to knock you out again. I moaned, and the voices around me stopped for a moment.  
  
"He's awake," someone said.  
  
"Get him on his feet," another one said with a voice of command.  
  
Someone with very big hands gripped the back of my collar and pulled me to my feet. The hand let me go, but had to grab hold again to keep me from falling down.  
  
I could see a dark figure moving towards me, its face distorted as my mind continued to get itself back into order.  
  
"I've been waiting a long time for this," it said before my belly bunched in on itself. I collapsed back onto the floor in a world of pain, realizing that someone had punched me in the stomach. The new pain gave my brain something else to focus on, and my vision finally started to clear.  
  
I was trapped in a metal room with only one steel door. An unshaded light bulb hung on a single wire from the ceiling, casting its ghostly yellow light about the room. There were no windows and no chairs either. There was only me and a group of men who looked like they pulled the skins off kittens just for fun.  
  
My legs were tied together by a thick rope, and my wrists were fettered with steel hand-cuffs.   
  
I managed to sit and lean my back up against the wall as I gasped for air.  
  
The man in front of me was the one who'd punched me, and obviously the leader. He was also holding my sword in his right hand, the empty sheath in his left.  
  
"Nice sword," he said, "I think I'll keep it seeing as how you aren't going to be needing it anytime soon." He laughed at his own joke, a signal for the other thugs to begin chuckling nervously. He was a black man, not necessarily tall, but muscular like a wrestler who hadn't been training lately. He had a mohawk died bright yellow, and a bright red vest with brown trousers. His fingers were encrusted in rings made of gold, silver, diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and probably a plethora of other precious metals and expensive rocks.  
  
"You are you?" I asked, spitting out a glob of blood, "and what do you want?"  
  
"Ha!" he said, "the man thinks he can ask questions huh?" I just stared at him. He scratched his chin, "alright," he said, "I'll tell you." He swung Reaper through the air once or twice, and then threw the blade and sheath over into the corner. "I," he said, "am the great Kotch."  
  
He certainly didn't suffer from a self-esteem problem.  
  
"And," he continued, "I want to take my revenge out on your skin."  
  
I must have looked confused because he kept on going.  
  
"How did I find you, you ask? Its quite simple…I followed you!" He laughed again, "I must admit that I was impressed with your ability to escape those Whole Eaters…you kept them away from me and my men anyway."  
  
"Why?" I asked again.  
  
"Because you killed two of my men," he said.  
  
"I only killed one of your men," I said, "I even gave him a fair chance for survival. I let the other one go."  
  
"Jimmy?" Kotch said, "I had to kill him as an example for what happens to failures, but you were the one who beat him and I say that makes you responsible."  
  
"How about you go…" my insult was cut off with a sharp blow from an invisible fist.  
  
"Where's the girl?" I asked, "and the baby…you didn't hurt them did you?" I don't know why I asked; maybe I just hoped that Kotch would settle for killing me.  
  
"That whore and her brat?" Kotch said, "they defied me too…it wasn't as if I could let them go." He knocked on the metal door and it opened into a second room. The door man came walking in with Christian cradled in his arms. For a second my spirits were lifted as I could see that the baby was still alive. Then the door man moved to the side and gave me an unobstructed few of the steel cell beyond my own.  
  
There she was…for a moment I thought that she was just flying…floating in midair…I was wrong. It took me only seconds to see the thin around her neck connected to the ceiling fan above. Laura's eyes stared sightlessly at me, her mouth open in a silent appeal for mercy. In the background Kotch was laughing.  
  
"She screamed good before she went," he said, "calling out for someone named Zack…that you?"  
  
But I wasn't listening…I could focus on nothing but her eyes. They were boring into me, pillaging my soul. They called to me, asked me why I hadn't been more careful, why I hadn't ducked the baseball bat, why I hadn't been there to save her when she needed me most. I'd promised Mrs. Herron that her daughter would be save…now I would never even get a chance to tell the woman about her daughter's death. The kindly innkeeper would never know anything about her daughter's fate…she'd probably blame me…  
  
"Hey!" said Kotch as he kicked me in the leg, "your name Zack?"  
  
The shadow was there, buried in my memories, but watching all the same. I embraced the shadow for it was me…it is what I was, and am, and always will be. I took it and subjected it to my will as one would bring a lion to the ground before releasing it again at an enemy. I was going to kill the people who had done this to Laura…I was going to make them scream REAL good before they died.  
  
I looked up at Kotch's leering face, before moving my legs and snapping the rope. The thugs backed up as I got to my feet. It was as if every cell in my body were on an adrenaline high, vibrating and straining at the leash to be released.  
  
My eyes flared. I don't know exactly how I was aware of this, but I knew at that moment, everyone in the room saw my eyes as burning infernos of ice cold flame.   
  
"Ummm," bumbled one of the murderers behind me, "Boss…"  
  
"What!?" Kotch practically yelled as he backed towards the door.  
  
"His hand-cuffs are melting," said the man nervously as he too backed away. In fact, the entire gang was making it's way toward the door, suddenly very unsure of what they'd gotten themselves into, and defiantly sure that they no longer wanted to be in it.  
  
I moved my hands out from behind my back, hot trails of liquid metal dripping down my wrists without so much as a blister to show for it. The liquid steel felt cool on my flesh as it dripped off my finger tips.  
  
Both of my hands shot out, one towards the door and the other towards my sword. The metal door slammed shut, its lock melting, sealing the gateway. At the same time my sword flew through the air and was easily caught as my fist closed around its leather hilt.  
  
'What is this power?' I thought to myself.  
  
'It is a gift,' one of the voices answered, 'a gift from your Mother.'  
  
I knew that my mother could not have given me such power, but I didn't stop to ask questions…it was time for justice to be served.  
  
"You wanted to know my name?" I asked.  
  
Kotch just shook his head, his eyes filled with terror, "no…its ok…every man has a right to privacy."  
  
"I agree," I said, moving my fingers along the edge of my sword, feeling its will in my grasp. It craved blood; it wanted to sing…it wanted me to give it life. "So," I continued, "you can just call me the Reaper."   
  
Kotch's eyes opened wide as saucer plates in anger and despair.  
  
"Kill him!" he screamed, "Shoot him!"  
  
The guns came out but I was already moving…  
  
There were seven of Laura's murderers in that steel cage, but they'd been caught in their own trap. There was no place to go and no place to hide, and as the air was filled with hot lead my blade began to sing.  
  
It chanted a song of frustration, of anger, of shattered dreams. It lifted up a Requiem for the innocent…it wrote a Nocturne for the fallen in a world of darkness. I had become a conductor of shadow and Reaper was my instrument…I knew this tune and played it well… 


End file.
